New Cave System?

[Christen]

Forgive me if this has already been posted. :-)

I was reading the news today about some guy who rescued a swimmer in TX and was arrested for doing so. I jumped over to the local newspaper there to read more and lo and behold....I was greeted with this on the front page....

http://www.sanmarcosrecord.com/articles/2005/07/02/news/news1.txt

-christen

[rchrds]

Wow- about time. That thing just SCREAMED cave- look up aquarena springs- there might be some pictures of the thing. That is at the base of a huge section of cave bearing limestone- could very well be a significant cave- but fat chance getting to dive it- actually that's not true- If a group of organized cavers gets together and presents a project with good credentials and proven results it could be a great project, and might even get it opened for others later on- I took the glass bottom boat over that spring a few years ago-

Jason

[rchrds]

here is an aerial- The blue color is a little difficult to discern due to the angle of the sun, but you can see the structure they built so you can see down into the spring- worse than Wakulla...

http://cavediver.net/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=4060&cat=509&page=1

[crazyduck]

Everything to date with San Marcos has been a mixed bag of results.
They allow diving but do not allow divers without the scientific diver program to enter the site. I plan on taking the scientific diver class myself sometime this winter so I could have access to 75 degree water to play in and to check out the site in general. The website below actually lists the sites of the springs.

There are a series of springs in Aquamarnia Springs and some of that is documented in the web site-
http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/sanmarcos.html
Flow path of the water- http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/geology.html#flowmap

The site seems to be a fractious zone and the low point of the area and this leads to the water venting at Aquamarina Springs. Several of the springs had had water quality testing done and the water seems to be entering from different areas. This includes one spring which has been deemed contaminated.

We will have to see if the present staff will allow diving this site and possibly being involved. Development of such a resource would be great but that needs to be tempered with a touch of salt.

Presently, myself and a number of divers use the slough or run off zone to enter at the waterfall and that starts the San Marcos River. The San Marcos river is considered public and access and this point is not restricted. Since the University has taken over the site a number of years ago they have become very protective of the site and only allow scientific work and it has to be the nature of peer review. Events like this will hopefully allow better aceess to all divers and eventually cave divers also.

With the knowedge of this site we might be able to consider a scientific nature and get some work done- of course divers would be needed. :-D

This is a cross post from Texas section.

Interesting link- http://www.aquarena.txstate.edu/

Andrew

[rchrds]

I will see the guys from the TSS on Friday- I have dived with Gerry Fant and dove an old project of Veni's a few years back. I will be interested to hear what they think about this- certainly some potential to get some cavers in there if everyone is on the same page and doesnt go about it willy-nilly. :)

[RD Milhollin]

The springs at Aquarena were flooded behind a dam build in the early part of last century, 1930's or 40's I don't quite remember. It is well known that the site is special, for a number of reasons, among them being that Texas Wild Rice, reportedly the most rare plant species in the country, grows only on one side of a bend in the San Marcos River downstream from the springs. Subsequent to the building of the lake, archaeological excavations carried out using diving equipment and directed by a professor at SMU determined that the springs are the site of the earliest known year-round human settlement known in the hemisphere. As far as I know the papers detailing this project have not been collated, and this is has needed to be done for many years. This is old information, and from memory, so the exact details may vary. The lake waters have protected artifacts that might have otherwise been plundered, so I would suggest that any project to dive and explore the caves under the springs would need to be done in concert with a qualified archaeologist to be sure provenience of any artifact found is carefully recorded and that preservation of any important find is professionally accomplished.

[rchrds]

I'm out of my local working area here- RD you're the man.

BTW- do you still have the address for that guy in Arkansas that made tank bags? I had someone else asking.

jason