Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna ("great snowy cave") is a limestone cave system in Mount Małołączniak in the Western Tatra Mountains, of the Carpathian Mountains System, in southern Poland. The cave is within Tatra National Park.
With the length of , and vertical range of , it is the longest, largest, and deepest cave in Poland.
Morphology
Wielka Śnieżna has five entrances:
Jaskinia Śnieżna ("snowy cave") – – discovered in 1959 Jaskinia nad Kotlinami ("cave over the kettles") – – discovered in 1966, connected to Śnieżna in 1968 Jasny Awen ("light aven") – – first explored in 1959, connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1978 Jaskinia Wielka Litworowa ("great angelica cave") – – connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1995 Jaskinia Wilcza ("wolf cave") – – discovered in 1996, connected to Wielka Śnieżna in 1999
They are connected by a complicated system of shafts and passages. Several of them contain underground trickles, waterfalls, pools, or siphons. The cave is drained by a karst spring known as Lodowe Źródło ("icy spring").
Exploration
Jaskinia Śnieżna was discovered in 1959 by cavers from Zakopane. In 1960, it was explored to a depth of , which made it, at that time, the fourth-deepest cave in the world. In the subsequent years, the cave was intensively explored and connected with other caves.
Exploration in the 1960s bottomed out at a sump or siphon, a U-shaped tunnel filled with water, at a depth of . In 1972, cavers using scuba diving gear were able to push past the sump for the first time. Their exploration pushed down to a depth of .
Subsequent efforts have found the cave to be deep. Exploration of the cave is still ongoing, including attempts to connect the cave to Śnieżna Studnia, second-largest cave in Poland.
See also Caves of Poland Tatra Mountains
References
External links Jaskinia Wielka Śnieżna – with a map