8MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

I ".J'.. ,']$.. j•. ' .4'...Jt40........!I..... .,1].9. ~II 21 :-:--:;:.".... ...... ................,....+..nK11c.2teT'8.~ 1/ Zacua!va.} Buena Vista II de EcatepecNSanta Cruz (La GarralJata)Ecologia) to look for caves in the ParqueNacional Can.on el Sumidero. This naturalarea is located just north of TuxtlaGutierrez. They visited three caves on theplateau at around 1200 meters elevation,and an additional three caves lower down inthe the canyon at 600 to 700 meters elevation.EXCHUCFrom 16-20 January the group checkedthe area around Exchuc for caves. Thisproved difficult because the Indians wererather hostile and suspicious. The caveswere often on property that was owned byseveral people, making permission hard toobtain. A cave with a stream was exploreddownstream for 66 meters, but explorationhad to be stopped since no further permissionwas granted•4 Cave,length 25m. 5a Cave,length 30m,depth 8m.Sb CUeva del Paco,length 20m.6 Sumidero. Sumidero. 8 unexplored cave,depth Bm. 24 Two caves,length 10m each.25 Cave,very $.ll\511. 26 Two small caves. 27 Cave,depth an. 28 C.ave,length 1Cku.29 Deep dolina,on private property,unexplored. 30 Blind dolina. 31 eave,depth 3m.32 Cave, length 7m,depth5m. 33 Blind dolina. 34 Sumidero,t.oo small to enter.35 Surnidero,too small. 36 Cave,depth 10m. 31 Large OOlina. 38 Sima sin Luz,Depth 5Sm. 39 Pothole,depth 7m. 40 pothole,depth 8m. 41 Cave.depth 12m.42 Cave,rot fully explored. 43 15 caves, longest 15m.PARQUE NACIONALCANoN DEL 8UMIDERO-10caves around the village of San Antonio,but that area remains unchecked.The caves found were all inactive fossilsystems in which further explorationwas stopped because of too much calcite inthe passages. The western plateau (1200meters elevation) has a very dense overgrowththrough which paths had to be cut toget to the cave entrances.The dolinas marked on the map whichlooked very promising, were in realitysilted up and overgrown. In the rainy seasonsome of the dolinas contain smalllakes, but none of them could be consideredactive sinks. After a week, it appearedthat the area had very little potentiaLKilometersNCANoN EL SUMIDEROThe group received permission fromSEDUE (Secretaria de Desarrollo Urbano yFTool: 1:50.\XXJ topo IIlBpOrlcoasen E15 r.5'J10 Cueva PenjMD,length 24Qn. 11 Sima Frans.depth ISm. 12 CUeva de Monte Cristo,length 105m. 13 Cliff with 8 caves,longest lQn. 14 eave,leJ¥;Jth lCkn. 15 cueva decanon del SUll'Iidero, length 14an.46