Torca de Mota en Cabera

The entrance is hidden behind a large block set in a shallow doline. After a short gallery, a first blind shaft of 20 m must be bypassed on the right (handline). The second shaft encountered (25 m) is also blocked by a constriction, and it is through a window about ten metres above the floor that the rest of the pit is reached (P.19).

At -47 m, a fine shaft 53 metres deep opens between the blocks. At the bottom, a 35 m shaft continues into an impassable meander (-139 m). A pendulum 17 m above the floor gives access to a spacious meander that leads to a shaft 9 metres deep. The descent continues and, after passing through a meander, a new drop appears (15 m) followed by another of 17 metres that breaks through the ceiling of a chaotic chamber carved in the marly limestones (-164 m, sala Amarga = sad chamber).

Downstream, the galerie de la Entelequia (Entelechy), loose and overdeepened, continues for 115 metres to a serious obstruction (-190 m). Upstream, the gallery climbs the dip for about thirty metres to a choke. Shortly before, a passage at ceiling level (désobstruction Atlas) reaches a fairly vast canyon into which several chimneys arrive. From there, a lateral meander connects with the ceiling of the sala Amarga. The cave is traversed by an indraft in summer.

The entrance opens at the boundary between the sandstones (grès de la Brenia, level 14) that cap the summits of the Picón del Fraile (las Motas) and the first upper bed of the Picón limestones (level 13). The originality of the cave is that it crosses all the limestone members of the Picón del Fraile by piercing all the small intercalated sandy-marly horizons, probably thanks to the intense fracturing of the sector. After this abrupt vertical transfer, the classic small drain is found again on an impermeable screen, guided by the dip and the fractures. The outlet is the source de la Gándara.

Survey: see the “Documents” section of this sheet or directly: https://karstexplo.fr/Telechargement/doctelechargeableAson/Topographies/0696.pdf

Source: Karst Explo > Espagne > Mota en Cabera (no. 696): https://karstexplo.fr/CuevasAson/CavSecteur10/Mota-en-Cabera.htm