Forat Nº1 de l'Embut
Active sinkhole 124 m long in the Núria valley (Ripollès), with two entrances, an underground river and dry galleries.
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Forat Nº1 de l'Embut
Active sinkhole 124 m long in the Núria valley (Ripollès), with two entrances, an underground river and dry galleries.
Queralbs · Ripollès
Length: 124 m · Depth: 12 m
Updated record
https://espeleoworld.com/en/c/forat-n-1-de-l-embut
Information can change. Always verify coordinates, access, weather, and cave conditions before setting out.
Active sinkhole 124 m long in the Núria valley (Ripollès), with two entrances, an underground river and dry galleries.
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
This cavity has two entrances, a very obvious one (nº 1) through which the waterfall trickles. The other (nº 2) is a small crawlway opened by digging. Entrance 1 is 3.5 metres wide by 1 metre high. As soon as we enter we find ourselves in a low-roofed chamber where the river descends on the left with a steep gradient of -30º. On the right, and through a crawlway about 2 metres long, one reaches a network of galleries. On the left a crawlway continues that becomes impenetrable, and on the right we reach a chamber, from here and through an ascending conduit we come out again to the exterior opening entrance 2. Other crawlways prevent us from continuing due to their narrowness. At the end of the chamber there is a small room with two mud sinkholes, 1.3 and 0.5 metres deep. Turning back we will go into a descending gallery in a N direction for about 15 metres; this intercepts a joint oriented E-S-E, about 2 metres wide and 3 high. If we go towards the E it ends in a sinkhole, and if we go towards the W, and although we hear the nearby murmur of the river, the gallery becomes narrow preventing the explorer's passage.
Hydrology
We will return to the river, we will go down among the "rapids" until reaching two narrow passages that sump and make progression impossible. On the right, a small gallery advances a few metres in an E direction until it becomes impracticable. The dry galleries present no difficulty, although they have occasional water activity, becoming completely flooded when the river cannot absorb all the flow. Downstream of the Embut nº 1, in 1971 a sinkhole opened in the very middle of the bed which through an entrance about 6 metres in diameter penetrated into a subvertical shaft that descended to 21 metres deep and some short galleries were formed. A few years later, this shaft was plugged. This is what is called Embut nº 2 and which we have decided not to catalogue.
Progression
The river section, due to its gradient, the icy water and the slippery and shifting rocks, means that the exploration must be carried out well equipped and with great caution.
History
The whole system of cavities (specifically those now catalogued as Forat nº 1 and nº 4 de l'Embut) have been known since remote times, although they are not mentioned in the old catalogues and their history is somewhat complicated. The Forat de l'Embut, let us say the classic one, is nº 4, but in an old postcard (1921) of the Núria valley, the one now known as nº 1 appears photographed.
The first known speleological explorations are those carried out by members of the GES – CMB in July 1953 who mention the Forat de l'Embut (-20 m) and return in September of the same year, also visiting 'a cave near the Embut' (could it be the one later christened Coves del Catau de l'Ós?). Of all this information we only have the reference from the GES activities book, with no further data.
They did not return until October 1956 when they made a survey (Embut nº 4) which remained unpublished until it appeared in the Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (nº 4, 1980), forming part of a very confusing composition with the one made in 1971 (Speleon 22, 1976) by Vendrell and Filbà.
It is not, however, until 1964 that Alexandre Carreras (GEB) publishes the first data on the Embut system, in an article basically devoted to the hydrogeology of the phenomenon and published in Cavernas nº 3.
Returning to the Embut nº 1, the one located higher up, there is no speleological news of it and it seems that towards the beginning of the 1950's it was plugged, with which the whole river was swallowed by the Forat nº 4, but towards June 1971 a large opening was made in the middle of the bed that descended about 20 metres deep (Embut nº 2) and swallowed the water, but towards the 1980's it was completely sealed and the water again entered through the Embut nº 4.
Meanwhile, and in the course of some visits to the Embut nº 4 during the summer of 1968, members of the SIE – CEA found a small fissure on the left slope of the torrent, which they dug open and explored, it seems, in a partial way. They christened it with the name Forat d'en Bes, but according to what our friend Antoni Ferro (SIE) tells us, it is what is now catalogued as Embut nº 3.
Between 2006 and 2008 members of the GE Badalona and other colleagues have been reviewing and surveying again all the cavities of the area, updating all the data and they were published in volume 3 of the Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya (Jordi de Valles, 2009).
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Bibliography
- Borràs, J.; Miñarro, JM.; Talavera, F. (1980).- Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya. Vol. 4 (el Ripollès, la Garrotxa i l'Alt Empordà). 296 pp. Ed. Políglota. Barcelona.
- Cardona, F. (1989).- Grans cavitats de Catalunya (Vol. 1: La Serralada pirinenca): 198 pp. Espeleo Club de Gràcia. Barcelona.
- Carreras, A. (1964).- “Los fenómenos kársticos del valle de Núria”. Cavernas (3): 102-112. Grup d'Espeleologia de Badalona
- Cutrona, R.; Bes, A. (1969).- “Forats de l'Embut i Forat d'en Bes”. EspeleoSie (4): 13-15. SIE – Centre Excursionista Àliga. Barcelona.
- Géraud, Ph. (1978).- “L'Avenc del riu de Núria”. L'Echo des Cavernes (2): 7-9. Société Spéléologique de Plantaurel.
- Valles, J. de (2009).- Catàleg Espeleològic de Catalunya. Vol. 3: 381 pp. Espeleo Club de Gràcia / Federació Catalana d'Espeleologia. Barcelona.
- Vendrell, M.; Filbà, Ll. (1976).- “Sistema kárstico del Embut del Puigmal (Núria)”. Speleon (22): 115-122. Centre Excursionista de Catalunya. Barcelona.
- Fotografies extretes del blog: espeleobloc.blogspot (apunt del 19-10-2009)
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Source: Espeleoindex (espeleoindex.com), modified. CC BY-NC 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/