Deep Well - Pridhamsleigh

Pete

One last comment before I collapse for the night, do you know if the navy divers involved with Edgar Reed in Prid were any relation to the navy divers involved with Big Willie in Swildons in 1946?

Just a thought.
 
Les W said:
graham said:
Maybe I need to organise a pint with Les in July.
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:thumbsup:
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I'm impressed by your dedication in researching all possible venues for future BCA Conferences Les.  ;)  I wish we had nice pubs outside our Dales cave entrances. It always seems to be icy desolation and freezing cold changes round here.

Graham - I hope you're now over the after effects of your favourite tipple last night. Is Joyce a diver? I never knew that. I've met her - and was involved a bit in writing a paper with her - but I never knew she was a diver.

Pete - your most recent post was particularly helpful; many thanks. (And thanks to other folk for your contributions.)
 
She hasn't mentioned diving to me when I have spoken to her - but then I didn't ask her about that. The person who really knows about Devon caves is Chris Proctor. He did his doctorate on halocline systems at Brixham. I remember years ago we discussed (that means I listened) the topic of  whether Prid 2 was of hydrothermal origin (as I believe is the origin of Pen Park Hole). Somewhere i have some correspondence from Pete Cousins about it.
 
Peter

More and more interesting! Chris would certainly be a good person to take a look, does he still dive I wonder?

PPH is undeniably hydrothermal and also has a dived lake at the bottom. I'd be very interested to hear Chris's reasoning about Prid.
 
Me too.

Please can I just ask a quick question? What's the difference between "hydrothermal" and "hypogenic"?

Graham's probably the best person to answer that - but please bear in mind I'd need an "answer for dummies" rather than anything too technical.

Mrodoc - thanks for your latest contribution. All this is making me start to think about having an expedition to Devon at some stage with a few tanks.
 
Pitlamp said:
Me too.

Please can I just ask a quick question? What's the difference between "hydrothermal" and "hypogenic"?

Graham's probably the best person to answer that - but please bear in mind I'd need an "answer for dummies" rather than anything too technical.
Click to expand...

Hypogenic means 'formed at depth' Hydrothermal means 'hot water'

Hypogenic caves, that is, ones which are formed below the surface without reference to the surface (unlike all that stuff in t'Dales wot is formed by the incessant rain in them parts) are formed by hydrothermal water rising up through the rock. The water will have been heated at depth, but may not be nascent water, actually formed by chemical processes at depth but rather be rain water which has fallen & then circulated deep (very deep) underground. The hot stuff that rises at Bath (& at other places in the Bristol area) is thought to be of the latter type & to have been 10,000 years or more on its journey down from the surface & then back up again. This process & the Bath Springs are one of the things that might well be disrupted by fracking in this area.

Pitlamp said:
Mrodoc - thanks for your latest contribution. All this is making me start to think about having an expedition to Devon at some stage with a few tanks.
Click to expand...

Is your passport up to date? ;)
 
Thanks Graham - an excellent explanation. So hypogenic caves are generally likely to have been formed by hydrothermal waters and the two terms are closely linked.

There is a possibility that certain caves in the Dales might have had an element of hypogenic formation, which is why I was interested. The natural rifts under Elbolton Hill in Wharfedale  spring to mind as possible contenders.

(I don't need a passport to enter Devon as I can travel from the Dales without passing between Yorkshire & Lancashire if necessary!)  ;)
 
That's a very generous offer ccasling - much appreciated. I don't know when I'd get chance any time soon but the local CDG members might appreciate a chuck with the gear some time?

That's an excellent picture MROdoc - looks like peculiar limestone though. Out of interest, is the subject a certain Leeds area based Northern Section member who likes making diving gear from unrelated scrap parts?
 
I too will happily sherpa and hump gear in!! Just a thought but going back to water flow there is evidence from olden days of flourecene into the well to see if it flows to lake but could we not try that from lake to the well?
 
Pitlamp said:
That's a very generous offer ccasling - much appreciated. I don't know when I'd get chance any time soon but the local CDG members might appreciate a chuck with the gear some time?
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Pitlamp, if you wanted to dive there I may volunteer to help carry your bags...
(or at least supervise somebody else to do it...  ;) )
Obviously there will be the compulsory pint in the Abbey Inn after...

Pitlamp said:
That's an excellent picture MROdoc - looks like peculiar limestone though.
Click to expand...

The limestone is made of Devonian reef knolls that have been metamorphosed into almost marble, by the nearby intrusion of Granite in the Carboniferous (from memory...)
(The nearby granite being the Dartmoor part of a massive batholith that extends all the way to the Scilly Isles...)  :smartass:
 
Pitlamp said:
That's a very generous offer ccasling - much appreciated. I don't know when I'd get chance any time soon but the local CDG members might appreciate a chuck with the gear some time?

That's an excellent picture MROdoc - looks like peculiar limestone though. Out of interest, is the subject a certain Leeds area based Northern Section member who likes making diving gear from unrelated scrap parts?
Click to expand...
It is indeed. He kindly took my eldest daughter through to 2 then blanched when she told us she had had a panic attack on the return (being a psychiatric nurse she recognized the symptoms and dealt with it!). The limestone is not only colourful it is also whiskery and crunchy at depth.
 
Thanks Les - of course, now I think about it, it's not surprising that all that igneous stuff nearby has had an effect on the Prid limestone. Your offer to help with gear (or "manage" same) is very kind! Thanks also to Cartwright26 as well. Realistically, I can't see when I'd get chance to take you up on it; I suspect others will have more chance to get there and look for those stals before me.

Thanks for confirming that diver's I/D Mrodoc. He's quite distiguishable because of his gear.

One day I'd love to have a dive in Prid - it looks like an awesome place!
 
Pitlamp said:
Sorry for banging on about those underwater stals yet again - but has anyone else seen them? We've been working on putting together a list of all instances of stals in sumps and, if that 1957 reference is reliable, it may be that Prid has the deepest (at -12 m?) underwater stals in the country.

The deepest we know of elsewhere are at -7.2 m in Keld Head but that's because of the special detail of Kingsdale's glacial history; I don't think you quite got the Devensian ice in Devon (as we 'ad it tough up north y'know!), so it also begs the question as to why they're there in Prid?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszwGjT6R9Q

definitely some a few metres deep but i guess thats due to the variation in water level anyway
 
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