Loading ...Radar scanning of the structure of the ice at great depths indicates that the ice block of Scarisoara, the most important tourist highlight of Alba County, is between 11 and 36 metres thick in some of its parts, which might give a total volume greater than 112,000 cubic metres.
The largest underground ice block in the world is the glacier of the Dobsinska Cave, Slovakia which volume is put at between 107,000 and 112,000 cubic metres.
The Scarisoara Cave has been probed by the Cluj department of the Emil Racovita Spelaeology institute, the world’s first spelaeology institute founded by Romanian scientist Emil Racovita in 1920.
Geologist Aurel Persoiu says among the research conducted by the department is one that aims to retrace the climate changes of the past 2,000 years in terms of temperature, precipitation and vegetation, in the ice deposits of the Scarisoara Cave.
Final results are expected out after all the computations and the 3D projection of the ice block are over, Chairman of the Garda-based Sfinx Spelaeologists’ Association Christian Ciubotarescu informs in a press release.
The first mentions of the Scarisoara glacier as a tourist attraction date back to 1847 and 1857, when the entrance swallow hole was equipped with wooden planks for stairs.
That proves the place was known and explored by the locals, who would use the ice and water in these droughty parts of the country long before the arrival of the first outside visitors, says Ciubotarescu.
The first scientific observations of the cave were published in 1861 by geologist Karl Peters.
The first map of the cave was published by geographer Adolf Schmidl in 1863.
The first monographic study was published in 1927 by Emil Racovita, the founder in 1907 of biospelaeology, the study of animals living in caves, as a science.
The Scarisoara Cave was the first cave declared a monument of nature in Romania in 1938.
Following a 1947 expedition, two scientific reserves there were discovered and explored.
Two stages of research and study of the glacier ensued conducted by researchers with the Emil Racovita Spelaeology Institute of Cluj in 1963-1968 and 1983-1992.
In 2001, the Sfinx Spelaeologists’ Association explored new lateral wings of the cave and finalised the designing of the portion of the glacier currently open to public visits, introducing artificial lighting in the Church Hall.
There are three entrances to the cave, which is located 1,165 metres above sea level. It is more than 700 m long and has level differences of 105 metres.
The tourist trail includes a swallow hole more than 50 metres deep and 50 metres in diameter equipped with metallic stairs.
Deep down the hole is the Grand Hall, which ceiling is made of an ice block of more than 100,000 cubic metres in volume, with a maximum thickness of 36 metres, which base strata are between 2,000 and 3,500 years old.
From the northwest side of the Grand Hall a vista opens of more than 100 perennial ice stalagmites.
Cave explorers can find in Alba County the largest cave ramification in Europe, the largest and deepest underground lake in Romania, as well as Romania’s largest stalagmite dome and the deepest U-shaped channel through which the water in a cave is siphoned out.
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