12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

POSTEXPEDITION NOTESBill Steele and Jim Smith havereturned to their feet and the restof US to our jobs. During the threemonth ordeal we learned something ofthe art of perseverance. It was tolend us those few fleeting glimpsesof the puzzle which had so capturedour imagination. Fifteen years afterits discovery, we were finally givenone of the links which was to clarifythe hydrology of the cave of theHuautla Plateau. That link was thenorthwest passage leading from Route'68 in San Agust1n to within tenmeters of the end of La Grieta. Itwas the passage that had to be there.And was. The water i~arries is theconfluence of both La Grieta andAgua de Carrizo, the primary drainagenets of the high area to the northof San Agust1n. These caves, as wellas all the major systems in the regionappear to be developed along animmense, tilted syncline trough whichdrops toward the probable resurgencesoutheast of San Miguel. For thistheory to be true, the caves to thesoutheast will necessarily have togo deeper to hit the main drain.The 859 sump in San Agust1n doubtlessleads to this corridor below but doesnot appear to be humanly traversable.The bypass, if indeed it does exist,will likely come in the form of Sotanodel R10 Iglesia. Despite a depthof 535 meters and claim to some of thelargest known passage on the plateauit has received less than one weekof attention to exploration and mappingthroughout its twelve year history.It was felt until this yearthat the water entering R10 Iglesia,by far the largest surface stream inthe area, came into the deeper SanAgust1n as one of its lower tributaries.This now appears to be invalidas all of the water sources inSan Agust1n have been explored towardsthe caves to the north. So in R10Iglesia, to the south, may lie thekey passage to the underground waterconduit draining the 100 square kilometerplateau to the coastal plains,1600 meters lower.The 1979 expedition received thebacking of numerous sponsors, bothprivate and commercial. Thanks areparticularly due to The ExplorersClub of New York, Nikon Corporation,PMI, Speleoshoppe, Bob and Bob, eMI,Oregon Freeze Dry Foods and the hostof NSS members and grottos who madeit all possible.Expedition Personnel:Jerry AtkinsonJill DormanDino LowreyHal LloydRichard SchreiberTommy SchifflettJim SmithBill SteeleBill StoneSteve Zeman58Editor's Note: Foilowing the additionof the new data to the survey,the depth 'of San Agusdn has beenadjusted to 861 meters.