Victoria Aven height
- Thread starter Rob
- Start date
Pitlamp
Well-known member
It was properly surveyed not long after Buster et al explored it - I think Graham Proudlove was involved. It'll be in one of the TSG Journals from the 1980s. The Glebe cottage oracle should be able to answer this query. Somewhere in a box upstairs I have a photograph I took of what looked to us like a bone, found near the top. (It was up the other side from the route that leads to the Victoria Line etc.) Also I seem to remember finding fragments of toadstone up there - probably from the Cavedale lava.
If you go up Cavedale to where that spring comes out on the lava bed above the narrow section there's a low cliff off to the right. I always wondered whether this is a small fault scarp along the Victoria Aven fracture, which must be somewhere pretty near that spot.
Hope this helps.
If you go up Cavedale to where that spring comes out on the lava bed above the narrow section there's a low cliff off to the right. I always wondered whether this is a small fault scarp along the Victoria Aven fracture, which must be somewhere pretty near that spot.
Hope this helps.
Pitlamp
Well-known member
It is in TSG Journal 11 (1985) pages 33 - 37; the surveyors were Graham Proudlove and Bob Grimes. We did find toadstone and a bone (mentioned on page 36) so my memory was right after all. It says on the survey that the highest point is a lava boulder choke "100 m above the show cave". This almost certainly means above the show cave floor at the end of the 5 Arches near Buxton Water Sump (remember that the show cave used to extend further than at present).
So assuming that Buxton Water Sump is, say, 3 metres above the Halfway House passage - which is at the same level as the resurgence (approx 190 m asl) then the top of Victoria Aven is at 293 m. The best estimate I can make from the 1:25,000 map of the altitude of the ground roughly above Victoria Aven is 327 m asl. So the top is approx 34 metres below surface.
Hope this helps!
So assuming that Buxton Water Sump is, say, 3 metres above the Halfway House passage - which is at the same level as the resurgence (approx 190 m asl) then the top of Victoria Aven is at 293 m. The best estimate I can make from the 1:25,000 map of the altitude of the ground roughly above Victoria Aven is 327 m asl. So the top is approx 34 metres below surface.
Hope this helps!
Rob
Well-known member
Cheers for that Pitlamp. Tis a good article that. Can't believe that they dug the choke into George Coopers Aven before pushing the other lead from Elephant's Head Chamber.
The main reason i'm interested is i was up there last weekend for a good look about and that lava choke did look pretty promising, at least in the short term anyway. A quite large section of open space could be seen about 1.5m away through the rocks. 35m is still quite a bit to play with.
What kind of size was the bone?
The main reason i'm interested is i was up there last weekend for a good look about and that lava choke did look pretty promising, at least in the short term anyway. A quite large section of open space could be seen about 1.5m away through the rocks. 35m is still quite a bit to play with.
What kind of size was the bone?
Pitlamp
Well-known member
It was part of a long bone, maybe 2 cm diameter and about 12 cm long (from memory) with both articulating surfaces absent. Somewhere I have a B/W image of it - if you really want I'll root it out for you but the bone is presumably still there and still calcited in. I hope to call at the Chapel at some point next week so I could see you if you're about or leave it for you to have a look at. PM me if you want me to try and sort it out. Least I can do after your help with that job in Titan / Far Sump few weeks ago!