Cova Negra de Mata-solana

A 28x4 metre entrance that gives access to an almost circular chamber of 60X60 metres with a maximum height of 12 metres. The total drop is 36 metres (-23/+13). The ceiling of the chamber, parabolic in form, shows a regularised profile, in the opposite direction to the dip, resulting from the continuous and progressive fall of detrital material in the form of small blocks, which cover older clastic collapses of larger dimensions.

Locally there are large stalagmites and wall coating deposits which in some places show phenomena of solifluction and fragmentation. On the W side of the chamber we can observe a phenomenon, curious to say the least, of a large stalagmite pierced laterally by a hemicylindrical hole with a rather smooth outline. In seeking a logical explanation we may think that at a point of strong dripping (it still is today) there was deposited in past times a hollowed-out trunk for the purpose of collecting water (at another point in the chamber one of these can be observed) and around it and above it the stalagmite developed and the trunk served as the mould for this curious perforation, until the wood disappeared through rot or because someone removed it (see the photos section).

From the back of the chamber, at its western end, the climbing route “FUS” starts, and from the eastern part we find the climbing route “TOPI”, both of which end after a few metres; in the SW part of the chamber we find the “VIA MARIGOT”, this climb ascends 4.6 metres in the chamber giving access to an ascending squeeze that places us in a small chamber at the base of a 17.7 metre pitch, which gives access to a window that opens out into a -12.7 metre pitch, while this ascends some 15 metres from the window. At the bottom of the pitch we find a short ascending gallery.