Avenc del Cairat

Small 8 m deep pit below Can Tobella (Esparreguera), a temporarily active sinkhole in Eocene red sandstones.

Esparreguera • Baix Llobregat 12m 8m

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Avenc del Cairat

Small 8 m deep pit below Can Tobella (Esparreguera), a temporarily active sinkhole in Eocene red sandstones.

Esparreguera · Baix Llobregat

Length: 12 m · Depth: 8 m

Updated record

https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/avenc-del-cairat

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

Small 8 m deep pit below Can Tobella (Esparreguera), a temporarily active sinkhole in Eocene red sandstones.

Characteristics

Type: Pothole
Municipality: Esparreguera
Region: Baix Llobregat
Unit: Sant Salvador de les Espases - Serra de Rubió
Length: 12 meters
Depth: 8 meters
Major Unit: Serralada Prelitoral
Lithology: Sandstone
Updated on EspeleoÍndex: July 6, 2013

Location

Going along the C-55 road, from Olesa de Montserrat to Monistrol, at kilometre 7.1 you must take a turn-off to the right that passes by the old spa of La Puda and follow the track —junctions with signposts— until reaching Can Tobella (Can Tovella, on the ICC map). From here you must take the path that descends to the Cairat weir, cross the railway line and after about 300 metres you reach the torrent of Can Tobella, which you must follow upstream to the point where it turns towards the NE, the pit being found at this point right in the middle of the torrent bed.

At present the whole area is covered by an impenetrable reedbed which has not allowed its relocation.

Entrances

Always verify coordinates and access conditions before setting out.

Avenc del Cairat
Elevation: 112 m
41.572502, 1.867282
UTM 31T (ED 50) 405659 4603136
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Topographic

Avenc del Cairat - Topography, Esparreguera, Baix Llobregat

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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

A wide, almost circular entrance leads to a single shaft with a drop of 8 metres. The base, steeply inclined, is covered by a large quantity of blocks of all sizes, ending in an impenetrable hole through which the water captured by the cavity is swallowed.

The pit develops in Eocene red sandstones, highly fractured.

Hydrology

It is a sinkhole, temporarily active, that collects the waters of the riera of Can Tobella, which discharges into the Llobregat.

The cavers of SE Gelera and GE Pedraforca carried out a dye tracing with fluorescein, hoping for a response in some supposed resurgences located between the pit and the nearby Llobregat river, but the result was nil, thinking that the waters must seep directly into the water table.

History

Discovered and explored at the beginning of 1972 when members of the Barcelona groups SE Gelera and GE Pedraforca carried out a campaign of cataloguing and study of the set of cavities in the area of Can Tobella.