
Avenc de Can Castellet de Dalt
Històrica cavitat de 19 m. de fondària a Sentmenat.
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Avenc de Can Castellet de Dalt
Històrica cavitat de 19 m. de fondària a Sentmenat.
Sentmenat · Vallès Occidental
Length: 76 m · Depth: 19 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/avenc-de-can-castellet-de-dalt
Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.
Historic 19 m deep cavity in Sentmenat, near the Can Castellet farmhouse, known since time immemorial and explored in 1825 by Mariano de la Paz Graells.
Topographic
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Photos
Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.
Description
Morphology
A 4.5 x 4 metre entrance leads to a 7 metre shaft that leaves us on top of a debris cone. In a N direction we can follow a descending gallery 15 metres long, in which we will find, on its left side, a small gallery of 3 metres. At the end of the main gallery we can climb up some chimneys to some wings separated by bedrock.
Again at the base of the entrance shaft, one can follow in a S direction along a pronounced ramp that leads to a hole 0.8 metres high and about 3 metres long that opens into a room with a steep slope and which is 13 metres long, 3 wide and about 10 high. At the lower end we find a crawlway, above which an important hole, empty in some places, forms a double gallery. Following the crawlway (0.3 metres high), we reach a small room from where we can continue in different directions. To the S, through a crouched passage we find two holes that connect to a 4 metre vault with walls covered in mud and limestone blocks very broken up by dissolution.
If, on the contrary, we follow towards the W, we will end up at a parallel gallery, from which we can take two directions: towards the S we will climb a muddy ramp and continue 5 metres crouched, where the gallery ends; in a N direction the gallery climbs passing a small bedrock and, on a steep slope, we reach a horizontal gallery of 6 metres, at the end of which, and through a narrow passage, one accesses a chimney 4 metres high very full of mud.
Cavity structured on two important joints. The larger one takes the direction N30E-S30O and is the one that forms the main gallery, including the entrance mouth. The second is the one that forms the side gallery, it has the same direction but is slightly inclined. The mouth has opened to the exterior by collapse of the vault and has caused the large debris cone.
History
Cavity known in the area since time immemorial. The first reference we have is that of the exploration in 1825 by the eminent doctor, naturalist and politician Mariano de la Paz Graells, accompanied by the French naturalists and doctors Balard, Baerson and Galois. During the visit they found human remains, thinking they had made an important discovery and apparently, in the village they were informed that they were the remains of the French soldiers who had been thrown down a few years earlier during the Peninsular War. In 1825 Graells was only 16 years old (born in Tricio, La Rioja, in 1809), a high school student in Barcelona, this relationship with the French naturalists seeming very premature, which is cited in the first instance by Puig y Larraz in his “Cavernas y simas de España”, making a brief very exaggerated description with the presence of shafts of 50 and 70 metres. Font i Sagué in his Catàleg limits himself to translating Puig's text. Faura in his Recull grants it a depth of 80 metres (with a question mark).
We have evidence of multiple visits by members of the GES-CMB from 1954 onwards.
We update the record (April 2016) including the survey made by members of the SIE – CEA in November 1967 (EspeleoSie nº 2) and another, the work of N. Llopis Lladó, which had remained unpublished until now and without having been able to ascertain the date of its realisation (we think it must have been between 1940-1942).
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Bibliography
- Badiella, X.; Aguirre,F.; Martínez, M.A. (1982).- “Les cavitat del vessant Est del riu Ripoll (II)” SIS (9): 12-21 / Arxiu del Centre Excursionista de Terrassa (29): 552-561. Centre Excursionista de Terrassa.
- Navarro, J. (1967).- “La Cova-avenc de Castellet de Dalt”. EspeleoSie (2): 1-4. SIE – CE Àliga. Barcelona.
- Revisió coordenades i fotos 'JNC' facilitades per Jordi Navarro, (Centre Excursionista de Castellar del Vallès).
- Altres fotos extretes del blog: espeleobloc.com (Apunts dels dies 11, 12 i 13 d'abril 2016.
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
