Cave in the Park 4. Crystal Cave in Sequoia Park, California. Zaryadye Park Ice Cave ticket price, opening hours: how to get there, where the park is located

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The opening of the ice cave is scheduled for the last days of February. Now specialists are building up the ice and finalizing all the technical nuances related to its further content inside. According to official comments in the future Ice cave will work all year round.

Zaryadye Park is located in the very center of Moscow: between Kitaygorodsky Proezd, Varvarka and Moskvoretskaya Embankment. It was erected on the site of the Rossiya Hotel. Entrance to the park itself is free for everyone. Only paid attractions.

Zaryadye Park Ice Cave ticket price, opening hours: Zaryadye Park has started freezing the ice cave

The structure with columns, labyrinths and arches covering an area of ​​350 square meters will be available all year round in the Conservation Embassy pavilion. The height of the “glacier”, which will allow guests to plunge into the atmosphere of the Arctic, will reach six meters. It is planned to open it to visitors at the end of this winter.

“The ice cave structure consists of curved metal pipes with a total length of 15 kilometers. About eight tons of special coolant circulates inside. The temperature in the cave will vary from minus five to minus eight degrees Celsius,” said Moscow’s chief architect Sergei Kuznetsov.

The author of the project and artist Alexander Ponomarev noted that special equipment that supplies coolant was placed under the “glacier”. New layers of frost are artificially frozen on the walls, ceiling and floor of the cave, which then turns into ice. Complete ice cover will form in about a month and a half. In total, about 70 tons of ice are planned to be frozen during this time.

Zaryadye Park Ice Cave ticket price, opening hours: how to get there, where the park is located

Zaryadye pavilions are open from 14:00 to 20:00 on Mondays and from 10:00 to 20:00 from Tuesday to Sunday. The park itself switched to 24-hour operation on October 27 last year.

The idea of ​​Zaryadye Park is Russia in miniature, it is a kind of museum under open air, in which landscape zones of four climatic zones were created - northern landscape (tundra) and forest, steppe zone and water meadows. Moreover, each zone maintains its own microclimate.

The park is located between Varvarka Street and Moskvoretskaya Street, Kitaygorodsky Proezd and Moskvoretskaya Embankment.

You can get to the park by metro, car or public ground transport:

There are four metro stations near the park:“Okhotny Ryad”, “Teatralnaya”, “Revolution Square” and “China Town”. You can get from the metro to the park by different routes.

From the Okhotny Ryad metro station (exit No. 7 - to the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812), you need to go straight all the time: past Historical Museum, along the entire Red Square and past St. Basil's Cathedral.

From the Teatralnaya metro station (exit No. 10 - to the Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812), you need to walk along Bogoyavlensky Lane, then along Rybny Lane (past Gostiny Dvor) to Varvarki Street.

From the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station (exit No. 11 - to Bogoyavlensky Lane), you need to walk along Bogoyavlensky Lane, then along Rybny Lane (past Gostiny Dvor) to Varvarki Street.

From the Kitay-Gorod metro station (exit No. 8 - to Slavyanskaya Square) you need to walk along Kitaygorodsky Proezd towards Moskvoretskaya Embankment or along Varvarka Street.

You can get to the park by bus using different routes:

By bus M5, 158 you can get to Varvarki Street (Red Square stop) and walk to the entrance to the park from Moskvoretskaya Street.

By bus 255 you can get to Moskvoretskaya Embankment (Zaryadye stop) and walk to the entrance to the park from Moskvoretskaya Street.

On Slavyanskaya Square (Kitay-Gorod metro station) there is a large transport hub where buses M5, M7, M8, M9, M10, M27, 144, 904, 38, 101, 158, K, N1, N2, N3 stop , H4, H5, H6, H7, the site became known. From Slavyanskaya Square you can walk to the park in 15 minutes (entrance to the park is from Moskvoretskaya Street).

The park has underground parking for 430 cars. 33 places are provided for people with limited mobility. Check-in is from Moskvoretskaya street, check-out is on Kitaigorodsky proezd.

Opening hours: Every day from 7:00 to 00:00. Departure - around the clock Cost: 250 rubles per hour.

As for the operation of the park itself, it is open to visitors around the clock. The pavilions are open daily from 10 am to 8 pm. On Mondays, the park holds sanitary hours, and therefore the pavilions open a little later - from 14.00.

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cave in the park

Alternative descriptions

Yakov (1812-1893) Russian philologist, academician

Natural or artificial cave

Mor. the lowest straight sail on the mainmast

On a yacht - the main sail, the leading edge (luff) of which is supported by the mast

Shallow cave with wide entrance

One of the main sails on a sloop

A park structure imitating such a cave

Sail, mast

Cave, a recess in the rock with a flat bottom and a wide entrance

Slightly outlined cave

shallow cave

Lower sail on the second mast from the bow

Artificial cave

Cave baby

Both the sail and the mast

Park Cave

small cave

Mini cave

Sail or mast

Mizzen-mast and...-mast

Lower sail on the second mast

Inverted Bargaining

Cave for lovers

Expansion of the cave after the passage

Artificial decorative cave

Extended caves after passage

Small cave, niche in a glacier

Small cave

Coastal Cave

Park imitation cave

Karst landform

Cave for the nymph

Coastal Cave

Cave

Cave with vaulted ceiling

Natural or artificial cave

Shallow cave with wide entrance

Russian philologist (1812-1893)

M. Morsk. on sailing ships, a large straight sail, on the lower yard of the middle mast; a slanting or storm mainsail, a triangular sail at the bottom of the same mast, during a strong storm; on rowing ships: almost the same, a large sail on the middle mast. To explain the complex words of this beginning, let's say that the main mast is the middle one, and where there are two of them, usually the rear one (of three masts, the forward foresail, difficult words for; back mizzen, in compound words beguines and crus); All accessories of the mast armament each have the same name, but the name of the mast is placed before it. So the first attachment or attachment of the mainmast: mainmast; second: main top-top stay; third, main-bom-bang-top-top; its tip, a mainsail-flagpole, on which there is a flat knob, klotik. First platform, gazebo, sail on the mast, mainsail; the second, on the wall, main saling; third, grotto-bom-saling; transverse trees or yards, for tying sails to them, lower mainsail; second, grotto-marsa-rey; third, main beam; fourth, main-bom-bram-ray. At the ends (legs) of the lower and topsails, more poles are shot, for the additional side sails (foils) these are foils; bottom two: grot-lisel-spirits; and on the marsa-yard mainsail-marsa-foil-spirits. Tarred or standing rigging, to strengthen the mast from the sides: shrouds, and for the mast and extensions of its shrouds (ladder), fore-duns and backstays; stays in front; These tackles are named after the mast, mast, etc., to which they belong, for example. main-stays, main-stay-stays, main-stay-stays, main-stay, main-stay, etc. Running rigging is named after the sail; lower sail on the mainmast: mainsail, on the topsail topsail, on the topsail topsail mainsail topsail; these names correspond to the yards (see above). The sail is hoisted by a halyard, stretched at the bottom at the corners by sheets (in some sails the windward sheet is called a tack), pulled to the wind by a bowline, picked up by gypsum (and gorden), and each of these tackles is called a sail, for example. mainsheet, mainsheet, topsheet, mainsheet, topsheet; grotto-marsa-bulen; main-bom-bram-halyard, etc. The yards are raised by halyards (the lower ones hang constantly on borg slings), supported at the ends (toes) by topenants, and turned by braces; all these rigs are named after the yard: main-topsail-brace, main-top-browsing-topenant, etc. Staysails are called slanting sails without yardarms; they are raised by halyards along a rail and get their name from the mast, wall, top wall, etc., to which they adjoin one side (shtirina); and the rigs with them, also called after them, are the same sheets and gypsum: fore-brow-staysail-halyard, -sheet, etc. Main-hatch m. entrance, manhole in all decks, in front of the mainmast

M. cave, den, exit, basement, dungeon, dug and decorated or natural. Grotto entrance

Cave with a wide entrance

Bargaining from end to beginning

Shallow. cave with wide entrance

Carlsbad Caverns is a national park founded in the first half of the 20th century on the territory picturesque mountains Guadalupe, in the southeastern North American state of New Mexico. The park is a unique karst landscape, where over a hundred different caves have been discovered to date. These caves are famous for their enormous size and colorful variety of characteristic mineral formations, which often take on very bizarre shapes.

The history of the Carlsbad Caves goes back over two hundred and fifty million years, the depth of some of them reaches three hundred meters, and the total length of their descents and halls exceeds twelve kilometers. The area of ​​the largest of the local caves, which is called the Great Room, reaches six hectares. This cave has a longitudinal shape with a length of six hundred meters, a width of three hundred meters and a wall height of 90 meters.

National Park Carlsbad Caverns is located in the Guadalupe Mountains, a mountain range that runs from western Texas to southeastern New Mexico. The altitude above sea level ranges from 1095 m at its lowest part to 1987 m at its highest. Although the park contains areas of forest at higher elevations, the park's area is covered primarily by grass and desert shrubland.

Location national park at the intersection of the northern Chiguahuan Desert, the southern Rocky Mountains, and the southwestern Great Plains biogeographic provinces promotes a diverse natural habitat for wildlife. The deserts of the Southwest contain some of the highest species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects in the United States. The park provides important habitat for some raptors, particularly pumas, and is also home to one of the largest colonies of cave swallows in the northern hemisphere. The Carlsbad Caverns area is a significant habitat for a huge colony of Mexican anuran bats, where new offspring are born, as well as a stopover for migrating bats.

The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest and wettest desert in North America. Most of This desert is located in Mexico, and the park is one of the few places where it is protected and protected. During the year, an average of 366 mm of precipitation falls in the park; The climate is continental, semi-arid with mild winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 19 ºC.

A special place in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is Rattlesnake Springs, a forested area around a year-round spring that contributes to the diversity of wildlife. Rattlesnake Springs, and the area adjacent to the spring, has been designated by the National Audubon Society. wildlife, as well as bird research) as a significant bird habitat. The area attracts birders from all over the world to see some of the more than 300 species of birds that live there. Currently, the park has 67 species of mammals (including 17 species of bats), 357 species of birds, 55 different reptiles and amphibians, 5 species of fish, and more than 600 insects.

The plant communities of Carlsbad Caverns National Park are diverse, and in some cases, unique. The park has about 900 species and subspecies of vascular plants. The park's diverse ecosystem provides habitat for many plants that are found within the geographic limits of their distribution area. For example, yellow pine reaches its easternmost limit here, and dwarf chestnut oak (chinkapin oak) is at the westernmost limit of its range.

The Chihuahuan Desert has the largest variety of cacti of any region. Experts believe that this plant originated here, or south of this region, and then spread throughout the New World. The park's list of vascular plants includes 26 species or subspecies of cacti.

Underground voids are one of the important geological resources in the United States. The Guadalupe Mountains are an uplifted part of the ancient reefs that abounded in this part along inland sea more than 250 million years ago during the Permian period. The rock contains the remains of sea sponges, algae, snails, mollusks and other living creatures that lived in this ancient sea. Scientists from all over the world visit the park every year to study the structure and fauna of the reef.

The most famous of all the geological features in the park are the caves. The national park includes 116 caves, the most famous of which are the Carlsbad Caverns (or Carlsbad Caverns). It welcomes over 300,000 tourists annually and provides its visitors with a rare opportunity to look at the underground world above which lies the desert.

More than 1,000 years ago, prehistoric Indians ventured into Carlsbad Caverns in search of shelter. They left behind some mysterious drawings on the walls of the caves near the exit. Much later, in 1898, teenager Jim White accidentally discovered the entrance to Carlsbad Cave. While searching for stray cattle, Jim saw great amount bats flying from a desert hill. He approached a huge hole in the ground and described what he saw: “I was looking into a huge black hole... in which the mice seemed to be literally boiling.” Having descended into the cave, Jim described his impressions as follows: “I walked until I found myself in the space of grandiose stalagmites. This was the first cave I had ever entered and the first stalagmite I had ever seen, but my intuition told me that there was no other place in the world that could compare to this environment.

Jim White explored the caves using a homemade wire ladder. When he grew up, most people didn't even think such caves existed. He gave his name to many rooms, including the Great Room, the King's Palace, the Queen's Chamber, and the Green Lake Room. He also gave names to many notable cave formations such as Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Abyss, Fairyland, Sun Temple and others. Jim tried to show this unique place to other people, but only a few really believed in the existence of huge underground cavities filled with unusual cave formations.

Only photographs convinced skeptics that amazing caves really exist. Demonstrated in the city of Carlsbad in 1915, they caused a real sensation. Immediately there were many people who wanted to see the amazing caves with their own eyes.

The fame of the caves quickly spread and reached the city of Washington. In 1923, the US Department of the Interior sent inspector Robert Holley to study and verify that the caves were truly a picturesque corner of nature. Initially a skeptic, Holly described his impressions this way: “... I am fully aware of the futility of my efforts to convey the conflicting emotions, the feelings of fear and awe, the desire to understand the work of the Creator who presented to the eyes of man such a complex complex of natural wonders.”

On October 25, 1923, US President Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order establishing Carlsbad Caverns National Monument.

On May 14, 1930, an act of the United States Congress created Carlsbad Caverns National Park under the management of the National Park Service.

The study of the Carlsbad caves has been ongoing since that time. Experienced underground explorers, cavers, and scientists have become the Christopher Columbuses of today, traveling beyond the unknown. The caves attract many specialists who want to shed light on some of its secrets. Teams of cavers well versed in safe exploration techniques continue to discover new, unexplored caves. Their finds include the Guadalupe Room, the second largest room in the Carlsbad Caverns, and the exceptionally bright and ornate Bifrost Room.

The national park is one of the largest in its abundance, diversity and beauty of mineral formations. The park has 116 caves, which are among the largest underground chambers in the world. The main attraction of the park is a complex of 80 Carlsbad Caves, with a high diversity and aesthetic appearance of mineral formations. The age of formation is approximately 4-6 million years, the depth is up to 339 m, the total length of all passages and halls is about 12 km. Almost 5 km of paths are laid across the territory of the caves, thanks to which numerous tourists explore the beauty of this amazing corner of nature. The largest cave is the Big Room, the length of which is 1219 m, width - 190.5 m, height highest point- about 107m. This is the third largest cave in North America and seventh in the world. By total area it is equal to 14 football fields.

Most of the caves on our planet were formed by rainwater, which slowly dissolved limestone. Usually, water penetrates through cracks and sinkholes, gradually turning into underground streams and rivers, cutting out complex systems caves The Carlsbad Caverns were not carved by running water and streams, like many limestone caves in the world, but were formed by exposure to highly corrosive sulfuric acid.

Between 4 and 6 million years ago, water rich in hydrogen sulfide (H2S) began to seep through cracks and fractures into the limestone. This water, mixing with rainwater, penetrated into the earth's crust. When the two types of water mix, the H2S, combined with the oxygen that was present in the rainwater, was converted into sulfuric acid (H2SO4). This acid dissolved limestone along cracks and folds in the rock, thus forming the Carlsbad Caverns. This process left behind massive deposits of gypsum, clay, and sediment as evidence of how the caves were formed. About 4 million years ago, the processes of speleogenesis in the area called Carlsbad Caverns ceased, and the caves acquired the appearance that we can observe today.

The caves were once located at the bottom of the sea, covered with a coral reef. Therefore, the limestone rocks that the caves contain are full of marine fossils of plants and animals.

In addition to the 80 karst Carlsbad Caves, only Slaughter Canyon Cave, which also has impressive geological formations, is available to tourists in the national park. There are no paved paths or lighting there and tourists can visit it organized excursion with a national park ranger.

Today, Lechuguilla Cave, discovered in 1986, is the focus of research by cavers in the national park. Its depth is 490 m, making it the deepest limestone cave in the United States. It is closed to the public, and the exact location of its entrance is relatively hidden information in order to keep the cave intact.

Lechuguia Cave was not of particular interest to visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park until 1986. It had a 30-meter entrance opening, which led to a depth of almost 130 m and ended in a dead end. In the 1950s, speleologists heard the roar of the wind from under the bottom of the cave littered with rubble. Various experts have come to the conclusion that a cave corridor is located under the stone rubble. A group of Colorado cavers received permission from the National Park Service to excavate the site in 1984. The discovery of a large underground passage occurred on May 26, 1986.

What followed was one of the most exciting explorations of one of the most famous caves on the planet. Since 1986, researchers have mapped over 180 km of passages and established the depth of the cave at 490 m. Lechuguia Cave is ranked 5th longest cave in the world (third in the United States) and is the deepest in the United States. Speleologists, attracted by unexplored passages and unprecedented beauty, come here from all over the world to explore it.

The Lechuguia Cave is unusual not only due to its enormous size. Speleologists discovered large amounts of gypsum and lemon-yellow sulfur deposits here. A fantastic set of rare speleothems (Speleothems are mineral deposits that formed in caves as a result of water dripping), some of them are unique. Lechuguia Cave surpasses its sister, Carlsbad Cave, in size, depth, and variety of speleothems, although it does not have rooms that can compare with the enormous Big Room Carlsbad Cave. The Lechuguia Cave is a true underground laboratory where geological processes can be studied in a virtually untouched environment.

The evening flight of Mexican free-tailed bats from the entrance and exit of Carlsbad Cave is one of the main attractions of the national park. Anurans the bats They live only in colonies and feed only on insects. The Carlsbad bat colony consists primarily of females that give birth from June to July before migrating to Mexico for the winter in October.

The park is home to 17 species of bats, including large numbers of Mexican anuran bats. It has been estimated that the population of Mexican anuran bats once numbered millions of individuals, but has declined sharply in the modern era. Recently, their population has increased slightly, but it cannot compare with what it was before. Many methods have been used to estimate their abundance in the cave. The most recent and most successful of these attempts involve the use of thermal video cameras to track their numbers. According to 2005 data, their number was 793,000.

Mexican anuran bats live here from April until late October or early November. They fly out of the cave in a dense group, moving upward in a spiral in a counterclockwise direction, usually starting at sunset; The flight lasts about 3 hours. Bats have a complex location system, thanks to which they never collide with each other. An amphitheater has been built at the entrance to the cave, where visitors to the national park, starting from Remembrance Day (Remembrance Day is national holiday in the United States and is dedicated to the memory of American military personnel who died during armed conflicts or wars involving the United States. It is celebrated annually on the last Monday of May), and until mid-October they listen to the ranger's stories about bats, and spectators wait for the moment when the mice begin to appear from the cave.

The most impressive flights of bats occur in August and September. At this time, new offspring, born at the beginning of summer, join their older relatives, and then they all migrate south together.

The daily pre-dawn returns of the bats are different from the evening flights, but also impressive. Those who watch the morning return witness the bats making a swift dive from hundreds of meters into the opening of the caves. The speed of some of them can reach 40 km/hour and higher.

The park is open to visitors all year round, but most tourists come here mainly in the summer, on weekends and holidays. The lowest visitation occurs in January. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except Christmas Day. Tourists are offered the choice of either descending into the cave to a depth of 230 meters on their own or using the installed elevators.

El Paso is the closest large city to the national park, the distance is about 190 km.

May 17th, 2015

Carlsbad Caverns is a national park founded in the first half of the 20th century on the territory of the picturesque Guadalupe Mountains, in the southeast of the North American state of New Mexico. The park is a unique karst landscape, where over a hundred different caves have been discovered to date. These caves are famous for their enormous size and colorful variety of characteristic mineral formations, which often take on very bizarre shapes.

The history of the Carlsbad Caves goes back over two hundred and fifty million years, the depth of some of them reaches three hundred meters, and the total length of their descents and halls exceeds twelve kilometers. The area of ​​the largest of the local caves, which is called the Great Room, reaches six hectares. This cave has a longitudinal shape with a length of six hundred meters, a width of three hundred meters and a wall height of 90 meters.

Let's take a closer look at them...


Located in the Guadalupe Mountains, a mountain range that runs from western Texas to southeastern New Mexico. The altitude above sea level ranges from 1095 m at its lowest part to 1987 m at its highest. Although the park contains areas of forest at higher elevations, the park's area is covered primarily by grass and desert shrubland.

The national park's location at the intersection of the northern Chiguahuan Desert, southern Rocky Mountains, and southwestern Great Plains biogeographic provinces promotes a diverse natural habitat for wildlife. The deserts of the Southwest contain some of the highest species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects in the United States. The park provides important habitat for some raptors, particularly pumas, and is also home to one of the largest colonies of cave swallows in the northern hemisphere. The Carlsbad Caverns area is a significant habitat for a huge colony of Mexican anuran bats, where new offspring are born, as well as a stopover for migrating bats.

Photo 2.

The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest and wettest desert in North America. Much of this desert is in Mexico, and the park is one of the few places where it is protected and protected. During the year, an average of 366 mm of precipitation falls in the park; The climate is continental, semi-arid with mild winters and hot summers. The average annual temperature is 19 ºC.

A special place in Carlsbad Caverns National Park is Rattlesnake Springs, a forested area around a year-round spring that contributes to the diversity of wildlife. Rattlesnake Springs, and the area adjacent to the spring, has been designated as significant habitat by the National Audubon Society. birds. The area attracts birders from all over the world to see some of the more than 300 species of birds that live there. Currently, the park has 67 species of mammals (including 17 species of bats), 357 species of birds, 55 different reptiles and amphibians, 5 species of fish, and more than 600 insects.

Photo 3.

The plant communities of Carlsbad Caverns National Park are diverse, and in some cases, unique. The park has about 900 species and subspecies of vascular plants. The park's diverse ecosystem provides habitat for many plants that are found within the geographic limits of their distribution area. For example, yellow pine reaches its easternmost limit here, and dwarf chestnut oak (chinkapin oak) is at the westernmost limit of its range.

Photo 4.

The Chihuahuan Desert has the largest variety of cacti of any region. Experts believe that this plant originated here, or south of this region, and then spread throughout the New World. The park's list of vascular plants includes 26 species or subspecies of cacti.

Underground voids are one of the important geological resources in the United States. The Guadalupe Mountains are an uplifted part of ancient reefs that abounded in this area along the inland sea more than 250 million years ago during the Permian period. The rock contains the remains of sea sponges, algae, snails, mollusks and other living creatures that lived in this ancient sea. Scientists from all over the world visit the park every year to study the structure and fauna of the reef.

The most famous of all the geological features in the park are the caves. The national park includes 116 caves, the most famous of which are the Carlsbad Caverns (or Carlsbad Caverns). It welcomes over 300,000 tourists annually and provides its visitors with a rare opportunity to look at the underground world above which lies the desert.

Photo 5.

More than 1,000 years ago, prehistoric Indians ventured into Carlsbad Caverns looking for shelter. They left behind some mysterious drawings on the walls of the caves near the exit. Much later, in 1898, teenager Jim White accidentally discovered the entrance to Carlsbad Cave. While searching for stray cattle, Jim saw a huge number of bats flying from a desert hill. He approached a huge hole in the ground and described what he saw: “I was looking into a huge black hole... in which the mice seemed to be literally boiling.” Having descended into the cave, Jim described his impressions as follows: “I walked until I found myself in the space of grandiose stalagmites. This was the first cave I had ever entered and the first stalagmite I had ever seen, but my intuition told me that there was no other place in the world that could compare to this environment.

Jim White explored the caves using a homemade wire ladder. When he grew up, most people didn't even think such caves existed. He gave his name to many rooms, including the Great Room, the King's Palace, the Queen's Chamber, and the Green Lake Room. He also gave names to many notable cave formations such as Witch's Finger, Giant Dome, Abyss, Fairyland, Sun Temple and others. Jim tried to show this unique place to other people, but only a few really believed in the existence of huge underground cavities filled with unusual cave formations.

Photo 6.

Only photographs convinced skeptics that amazing caves really exist. Demonstrated in the city of Carlsbad in 1915, they caused a real sensation. Immediately there were many people who wanted to see the amazing caves with their own eyes.
The fame of the caves quickly spread and reached the city of Washington. In 1923, the US Department of the Interior sent inspector Robert Holley to study and verify that the caves were truly a picturesque corner of nature. Initially a skeptic, Holly described his impressions this way: “... I am fully aware of the futility of my efforts to convey the conflicting emotions, the feelings of fear and awe, the desire to understand the work of the Creator who presented to the eyes of man such a complex complex of natural wonders.”

On October 25, 1923, US President Calvin Coolidge signed an executive order establishing Carlsbad Caverns National Monument.

On May 14, 1930, an act of the US Congress created Carlsbad Caverns National Park, managed by the National Park Service.

Photo 8.

The study of the Carlsbad caves has been ongoing since that time. Experienced underground explorers, cavers, and scientists have become the Christopher Columbuses of today, traveling beyond the unknown. The caves attract many specialists who want to shed light on some of its secrets. Teams of cavers well versed in safe exploration techniques continue to discover new, unexplored caves. Their finds include the Guadalupe Room, the second largest room in the Carlsbad Caverns, and the exceptionally bright and ornate Bifrost Room.

Photo 9.

The national park is one of the largest in its abundance, diversity and beauty of mineral formations. The park has 116 caves, which are among the largest underground chambers in the world. The main attraction of the park is a complex of 80 Carlsbad Caves, with a high diversity and aesthetic appearance of mineral formations. The age of formation is approximately 4-6 million years, the depth is up to 339 m, the total length of all passages and halls is about 12 km. Almost 5 km of paths are laid across the territory of the caves, thanks to which numerous tourists explore the beauty of this amazing corner of nature. The largest cave is the Big Room, which is 1219 m long, 190.5 m wide, and about 107 m high at its highest point. It is the third largest cave in North America and the seventh largest in the world. The total area is equal to 14 football fields.

Photo 10.

Most of the caves on our planet were formed by rainwater, which slowly dissolved limestone. Typically, water seeps through cracks and sinkholes and gradually turns into underground streams and rivers, carving out complex cave systems. The Carlsbad Caverns were not carved by running water and streams, like many limestone caves in the world, but were formed by exposure to highly corrosive sulfuric acid.

Between 4 and 6 million years ago, water rich in hydrogen sulfide (H2S) began to seep through cracks and fractures into the limestone. This water, mixing with rainwater, penetrated into the thickness of the earth's crust. When the two types of water mix, the H2S, combined with the oxygen that was present in the rainwater, was converted into sulfuric acid (H2SO4). This acid dissolved limestone along cracks and folds in the rock, thus forming the Carlsbad Caverns. This process left behind massive deposits of gypsum, clay, and sediment as evidence of how the caves were formed. About 4 million years ago, the processes of speleogenesis in the area called Carlsbad Caverns ceased, and the caves acquired the appearance that we can observe today.

The caves were once located at the bottom of the sea, covered with a coral reef. Therefore, the limestone rocks that the caves contain are full of marine fossils of plants and animals.

Photo 11.

In addition to the 80 karst Carlsbad Caves, only Slaughter Canyon Cave, which also has impressive geological formations, is available to tourists in the national park. There are no paved paths or lighting, and tourists can visit it on an organized tour with a national park ranger.

Today, Lechuguilla Cave, discovered in 1986, is the focus of research by cavers in the national park. Its depth is 490 m, making it the deepest limestone cave in the United States. It is closed to the public, and the exact location of its entrance is relatively hidden information in order to keep the cave intact.

Lechuguia Cave was not of particular interest to visitors to Carlsbad Caverns National Park until 1986. It had a 30-meter entrance opening, which led to a depth of almost 130 m and ended in a dead end. In the 1950s, speleologists heard the roar of the wind from under the bottom of the cave littered with rubble. Various experts have come to the conclusion that a cave corridor is located under the stone rubble. A group of Colorado cavers received permission from the National Park Service to excavate the site in 1984. The discovery of a large underground passage occurred on May 26, 1986.

Photo 12.

What followed was one of the most exciting explorations of one of the most famous caves on the planet. Since 1986, researchers have mapped over 180 km of passages and established the depth of the cave at 490 m. Lechuguia Cave is ranked 5th longest cave in the world (third in the United States) and is the deepest in the United States. Speleologists, attracted by unexplored passages and unprecedented beauty, come here from all over the world to explore it.

The Lechuguia Cave is unusual not only due to its enormous size. Speleologists discovered large amounts of gypsum and lemon-yellow sulfur deposits here. A fantastic set of rare speleothems (Speleothems are mineral deposits that formed in caves as a result of water dripping), some of them are unique. Lechuguia Cave surpasses its sister, Carlsbad Cave, in size, depth, and variety of speleothems, although it does not have rooms that can compare with the enormous Great Room of Carlsbad Cave. The Lechuguia Cave is a true underground laboratory where geological processes can be studied in a virtually untouched environment.

Photo 13.

The evening flight of Mexican free-tailed bats from the entrance and exit of Carlsbad Cave is one of the main attractions of the national park. Tailless bats live only in colonies and feed only on insects. The Carlsbad bat colony consists primarily of females that give birth from June to July before migrating to Mexico for the winter in October.

The park is home to 17 species of bats, including large numbers of Mexican anuran bats. It has been estimated that the population of Mexican anuran bats once numbered millions of individuals, but has declined sharply in the modern era. Recently, their population has increased slightly, but it cannot compare with what it was before. Many methods have been used to estimate their abundance in the cave. The most recent and most successful of these attempts involve the use of thermal video cameras to track their numbers. According to 2005 data, their number was 793,000.

Photo 14.

Mexican anuran bats live here from April until late October or early November. They fly out of the cave in a dense group, moving upward in a spiral in a counterclockwise direction, usually starting at sunset; The flight lasts about 3 hours. Bats have a complex location system, thanks to which they never collide with each other. An amphitheater has been built at the entrance to the cave, where visitors to the national park, starting with Memorial Day (Memorial Day is a national holiday in the United States and is dedicated to the memory of American military personnel who died during armed conflicts or wars involving the United States. It is celebrated annually on the last Monday in May) , and until mid-October they listen to the ranger's stories about bats, and the audience waits for the moment when the mice begin to appear from the cave.

The most impressive flights of bats occur in August and September. At this time, new offspring, born at the beginning of summer, join their older relatives, and then they all migrate south together.

Photo 15.

The daily pre-dawn returns of the bats are different from the evening flights, but also impressive. Those who watch the morning return witness the bats making a swift dive from hundreds of meters into the opening of the caves. The speed of some of them can reach 40 km/hour and higher.

The park is open to visitors all year round, but most tourists come here mainly in the summer, on weekends and holidays. The lowest visitation occurs in January. Carlsbad Caverns National Park is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, except Christmas Day. Tourists are offered the choice of either descending into the cave to a depth of 230 meters on their own or using the installed elevators.

Central Park in New York is famous for many things. At night, it is famous for its robberies, rapes and outcast parties. During the day, picnics and dates are often held here; in winter, the park is famous for its ice skating rink. In autumn, the park is full of romance. Dry leaves rustling underfoot and the most romantic trips horseback riding in Central Park - the best option for the first date. But it was originally built to be a place for big city folk music, as well as to maintain the connection between city residents and nature.

Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, the architects who oversaw the construction of Central Park in the 1860s, included natural elements such as waterfalls, ponds, and large areas with lots of trees.

But there was one natural element that was there even before construction began. It was a narrow cave that is believed to have been partially carved out by humans, whose remains were discovered during excavations.

Olmstead and Vaux decided to integrate the cave into their elaborate park plan. They even deliberately added a narrow stone staircase that led to one of the cave entrances.

The cave was a big hit with visitors, especially children, but by the early 1900s it had become a nativity scene:

In 1904, a man was caught in a cave trying to commit suicide (by the way, he was not the first; the others simply did not have time to save and were found dead). His body, still showing signs of life, was found on the stone steps, so some believed that this was in fact an attempted murder.

In 1922, artist Alexander MacArthur was sentenced to three months' hard labor because he was "misbehaving" inside a cave (self-pleasuring), and in 1929, about 335 people were arrested in Central Park for having sex in a public place. , more precisely in a cave. I'm just surprised by the odd number...

The park manager, after some deliberation, decided to close the cave in 1930. Builders walled up the entrances and now visitors to the park pass by the once popular and secret cave in Central Park without even suspecting that it is there.

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