Damaging silt

[LCF]

In my recent class, I had an incident where a fin came off, and I lost my balance and put my hands in the silt. This was in an area that wasn't clay, but just that fine, fluffy brown silt. I have gotten a bunch of grief for damaging the cave, and I'm wondering how long marks in the silt like that will persist? I know in MX, I've seen marks last over a year, but the caves in MX don't flood and have less flow.

Anybody have any idea how long my "damage" is going to be there to bother other people?

[kwayne88]

During my training a couple years ago there was a place in Orange Grove where it looked like someone had used the bottem to pull themselves along. Hand indentions every three or four feet for a ways. I asked my instructor and he said they might stay for years if there were never any big floods (hadn't been one at this time for a few years) Haven't been to OG since so don't know if they are still there.

He also said there was one instructor who would sometimes do a dive with a brick trowel to smooth the bad spots over some.

[aainslie]

There are some areas of Ginnie where line was removed a LONG time ago. You can still see drag marks in that area. Admittedly it could be people like me going there much later, but I suspect many of those marks are from over a decade ago.

[LCF]

You guys aren't making me feel any better . . .

[Tegg]

Seriously?

[fixxervi6]

I would suggest some practice in OW popping fins off etc, even if your off balance you should be able to avoid hand planting, just "roll" with it, lil practice and you'll be good, so, I wouldn't worry about the damage you did, worry about preventing more.

[RN]

Lynne, I know this happened in Hole. Do you remember the area you were in? damage can sometimes be "fixed". I'd be happy to head back there and do what I can. Depending on the extent, it might take a few dives, but I'm willing to sacrifice my time diving Hole for this purpose. Seriously, I "fix" marks pretty regularly. All it takes is some fanning over the area to pick up the silt and let it settle back in to fill in the mark. It blows out visibility for a little while, but I usually do it on the exit in the latter half of the day.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Probably not a bad idea as Hole won't just flood over and fix itself in any short period of time... unless the flow picks up a bit. Since the dam controls the water levels(atleast to an extent) the cave doesn't get any really big nasty siphons like river influenced systems.

[Kelly Jessop]

In my recent class, I had an incident where a fin came off, and I lost my balance and put my hands in the silt. This was in an area that wasn't clay, but just that fine, fluffy brown silt. I have gotten a bunch of grief for damaging the cave, and I'm wondering how long marks in the silt like that will persist? I know in MX, I've seen marks last over a year, but the caves in MX don't flood and have less flow.

Anybody have any idea how long my "damage" is going to be there to bother other people?

A lot can depend on the cave. Somewhere like Ginnie that very rarely floods will show marks in the bottom far longer than our lifetime. Places like Peacock and Little River that flood very easily get an influx of organic material that can fill in some of the smaller incidental marks,but usually not a deep divot. There are things that can be done to repair an incidental contact mark,but caution needs to be exercised since there is a good potential of doing more damage.

[Rubis]

In my recent class, I had an incident where a fin came off, and I lost my balance and put my hands in the silt. This was in an area that wasn't clay, but just that fine, fluffy brown silt. I have gotten a bunch of grief for damaging the cave, and I'm wondering how long marks in the silt like that will persist? I know in MX, I've seen marks last over a year, but the caves in MX don't flood and have less flow.

Anybody have any idea how long my "damage" is going to be there to bother other people?

Lynne, I would assume that if that fluffy silt probably is going to fix itself just by the nature of the fluffy silt. I would be more concerned with clay.
It depends also what part of the cave you were in. In the past year, I have noticed in the caves that have reversals, some marks in silt get deleted with the flood.