Voronya Cave

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The Voronya Cave aka Krubera-Voronia Cave, Cave of Kruber, etc. (Russian: Крубера-Воронья) is the deepest known cave in the world. It is located in the Arabika Massif of the Gagra Range, in Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway republic. It is part of the Arabika Cave System.

The height difference in the cave is 2,140 (±9) metres. The same cave set the previous record for depth at 1,710 metres in 2001 by a Russian-Ukrainian team. In 2004 the penetrated depth was increased on each of three expeditions. At that point the Ukrainian team crossed the −2000 m mark for the first time in the history of speleology. In October 2005, a new, unexplored part was found by CAVEX team, and the cave became even deeper. This expedition confirmed the depth of the cave which is now −2,140 (±9) metres deep.

The bottommost point is also accessible from two other entrances of the Arabika Cave System: Kuybyshev Cave and Henrich's Abyss situated lower by mountain slope. An entrance to a yet another cave of the system, Berchil Cave (Berchilskaya Cave) is located 100m higher than that of the Voronya cave. It is conjectured to be connected to the other three, which would give the depth of about -2,240.

[edit] Names

"Voronya Cave" means "Crows' Cave". The other name is after the Russian geographer Alexander Kruber. Until 1983 it was known as Sibirskaya Cave (Siberian Cave), name so because the discovering expedition consisted of speleologists from Siberian cities of Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk and Tomsk.

[edit] History of exploration

The major events in the exploration of this unique cave are as follows:

1960: Georgian karst explorers. Found the cave and then explored to −180 meters.^{[citation needed]}
1968: A Polish-Russian expedition discovered three caves of the Arabika system: Siberian Cave, Henrich's Abyss and Berchil Cave.
The early 80s: Kiev Club. Explored the cave up to −340 meters.
1999 August: Ukrainian team Second Echelon. They found window (inside the cave) at −230 meters which led to −700 meters 'Non-Kuibyshevskaya' branch to −490 meters.
2000 August: Second Echelon team continued the exploration up to −1200 meters.
2000 September: UkrSA and MTDE team continued the exploration up to −1410 meters.
2001 January: UkrSA and Cavex team. Explore a window at −1350 meters led to a sump at −1430 meters. Then a side passage at −1420 meters which led to −1710 meters.
2003 August: Cavex and Kiev Club. The sump at −1440 meters (also known as Sump 1) was passed and led to new passages to the depth of −1660 meters.
2004 July: Cavex team. Continued until a new sump at −1810 meters.
2004 August: UkrSA. Side passage at −1660 meters led to another sump at −1824 meters.
2004 October: UkrSA. Continued to −2080 meters. For first time in the history of speology this team crossed −2000 meters in a cave.
2001 August: UkrSA. Search for continuation in the bottom part (1420 meters −1710 meters).
2005 January: Cavex. This expedition was canceled due to the fact that the helicopter which was carrying the cavers to the mountain crashed. No casualties reported.
2005 February: UkrSA. A sump at −1980 meters was passed.
2005 July: Cavex. Continued 160 meters down past the sump at −1980 meters. This led to a depth of −2140 meters. During this exploration 3 sumps were passed below −2000 meters.
2007 September: Alexandre Klimchouk explores the cave to a depth of -2190 meters, which is for the moment the world record.