Avenc de Sant Urbà

Avenc de 57 metres de fondària a Les Avellanes i Santa Linya.

Avellanes i Santa Linya, Les • Noguera129m57m

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Avenc de Sant Urbà

Avenc de 57 metres de fondària a Les Avellanes i Santa Linya.

Avellanes i Santa Linya, Les · Noguera

Length: 129 m · Depth: 57 m

Updated record

https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/avenc-de-sant-urba

Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.

Topographic map of the main entrance — Main entrance · ICGC topographic map

A 57-metre-deep pit in Les Avellanes i Santa Linya, with a 17-metre entrance shaft, equipped with M8 stainless steel parabolt.

Characteristics

Type: Pothole
Municipality: Avellanes i Santa Linya, Les
Region: Noguera
Unit: Serres marginals - Oest
Length: 129 meters
Depth: 57 meters
Major Unit: Prepirineu
Lithology: Limestone
Last review: 2024-04-08

Location

From Santa Linya we follow the LV-9043 road heading towards the railway station; at 820 metres we turn left to follow the track heading towards Sant Urbà; at 2.5 Qm we find a junction where we continue to the right; at 3.6 Qm we find another junction where we also continue to the right; at 4.56 Qm we find another junction where we again continue to the right; at 6.47 Qm, on a very tight bend, we find a new junction where there is an enormous rock in front of a cultivated field, placed there expressly as a marker; we follow the left-hand track for 230 metres, skirting the cultivated field until it ends, at which point we leave the vehicle (UTM ETRS89 coordinates 319376-4647870). From here, on the right, a faint path sets off downhill, running parallel to the cultivated field for 150 metres, until we reach a point where we come out at the cultivated field; we continue along the edge of the field for 110 metres until we reach a point where we enter the wood (Coordinates 319522-4648076); we continue through a flat area with not much vegetation for about fifty metres, where we will come across a marker or two, until we reach a point where we descend in the direction of the ravine (Coordinates 319528-4648116); from here, following the markers for about fifty metres, we reach the small platform where the pit opens.

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

Sant Urbà, Avenc de
Elevation: 510 m
41.964557, 0.821717
UTM 31T (ETRS89) 319495 4648136
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Topographic

Avenc de Sant Urbà - Topography, Avellanes i Santa Linya, Les, Noguera

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Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

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Photos

Avenc de Sant Urbà - Photo, Avellanes i Santa Linya, Les, Noguera

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Espeleoindex · CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ · Image © its author.

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Description

Morphology

The 2x1 metre entrance gives access to a 17-metre shaft; in the first two metres of this shaft we find a platform of blocks; we exit on the wider side and, halfway down the shaft, we gain a foothold on a steep ramp that leads us down to the final part of the shaft, which is quite wide throughout. The base is a ramp full of debris and a multitude of bones of the dead animals that in the 70s and early 80s of the last century the farmers threw into the interior of the pit; after 40 years only the bones remain.

Along the upper part of the ramp, it turns towards the west and, after a short distance, turns again towards the N and ends.

Along the lower part of the ramp we find that the fissure subdivides into different levels separated by blocks that form false ceilings, with some passages with a drop of up to 5 metres where a safety rope must be used. In some places these blocks are quite unstable.

The cavity is equipped with M8 stainless steel parabolt.

Note: The depth given of -57 metres we find rather exaggerated; we have measured the entrance shaft and it is 17 metres deep, a difference of 6 metres with respect to the 23 that were attributed to it, and not at the upper part of the ramp as was indicated, but rather already down a stretch of it, which is where the rope coming from the entrance shaft leaves us.

History

The first exploration was carried out by the GELL around 1975, but all trace of it was lost, and it was not rediscovered until 1984, when a resident of Santa Linya accompanied some members of the GELL to the cavity. Information about this cavity reached us through the GELL itself in 1984, when it appeared cited in the book El Montsec i muntanyes veïnes, but they give it a depth of 80 metres in a single shaft and place it right next to the track. In the same year, 1984, in the magazine Grallera nº1, the same authors give a new description and a new location that also does not correspond to the geographical coordinates they provide, since these place it within the Sant Urbà depression when this is not the case. It seems that the cavity was known to the shepherds of the area, who used it to get rid of dead animals. At present (2024) it seems that they have abandoned this bad practice, since we only find remains of bones. The data regarding the depth is somewhat exaggerated.

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Bibliography

GELL. (1984).-”Fitxer de cavitats”. Grallera (1):45-61.GELL – CE Lleida.
Cortés i Ribelles, Manuel.(1984).-El Montsec i muntanyes veïnes.
pp:1-375.CE Lleida.
Gàzquez i Pons, Josep Lluis, (1995).-”Catàleg Espeleològic de la Noguera”. Grallera (3-4):1-90. GE Lleidatà. Lleida.
Valles, Jordi de (2009).-”Alt Urgell, Noguera, Pla d'Urgell,Segarra, Solsonès,Urgell”. Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (vol.2):1-384. EC Gràcia/FCE.