Video the terrible adventure of a speleologist in the hell of the hot cave: “In a minute, the temperature increased until choking”

Adam’s cave, considered one of the most dangerous in Romania because of the hot steam that emanates from its depths, is the place of a strange phenomenon. A speleologist who ventured into her galleries, facing dangers, discovered the rare flexible stalactite.

More than 800 caves were identified in the Cerna Mountains, in the southwest of Romania, a wild land with a spectacular karst relief, in which the density of natural cavities exceeds ten caves per square kilometer. The most unusual of them are in the vicinity of Băile Herculane resort. They are called “hot caves”, being heated by steam emanating from the depths of the mountains.

“In four caves near the Herculane baths, respectively in the Cave of Despică, the Hercules Cave, the Avenue of Adam and the steam cave, karst phenomena combined with geothermal manifestations, thermomineral water or vapors with a maximum temperature of 55 degrees Celsius. worldwide ”, shows Domogled National Park – Cernei Valley.

The structure of the groundwater is very varied and generates hundreds of springs, whose importance is to feed the surface leakage and contribute to the organization of the defendant network, adds the representatives of the protected area.

Cerna Valley, the split in the mountains sifted by springs

Morned by the spectacular slopes of Domogled and Cernei, Băile Herculane has been, since ancient times, a resort sought for its thermomineral springs and for its beneficial climate.

It was established in the time of Dacia, about 20 kilometers from Orșova, the place where Cerna, after leaving the gorge behind, spilled into the Danube.

“The Cerna Valley, tight as you see it, with the rocks on the edges, with the many small waterfalls, with the multitude of cold, hot and hot springs – which erupt on the shore, part in its riverbed – all these geological miracles of nature owe their existence to a great volcanic revolution, spent in prehistoric times,” He showed, at the beginning of the 20th century, the spa doctor George Vuia, from Băile Herculane (Video: Truth).

Cerna Valley has not always been as we see it today, he added. In the past, a single mountain mastered the place where the Cerna River is now flowing.

“There is no need for too much fantasy: looking at the split shores, like two huge slabs, we can” stick “them with the mind and restore the image of the former mountain. What a frightening boil it must have been when the hot lava was fighting with the mountain to find a breath from the Platonic Empire prison! With the birth of the great crack in the mountain – which is today the Cerna river – they broke out of countless hot waters, some with a puck smell, others enveloping the place in steam bulges. These are the hot, sulphurous and salty springs today ”, said Dr. George Vuia.

Hot caves from Băile Herculane

Waters and time have led to the formation of numerous caves, and the rarest of them fascinated both scientists and sensational amateurs.

The latter spread the strange testimonies about the “hot caves” from Băile Herculane, places where hot steams, with sulfur smell, come to the surface among the cracks of the granite and limestone. For speleologists, the research of hot fish was a risky adventure.

“The first element that attracts attention is the high air temperature in these cavities, caused by the presence of thermomineral waters or by hot vapor emanations. Temperatures vary between 25 and 53 degrees Celsius, transforming these caves into true tropical oases into a temperate climate. But not only the heat, but the humidity and the humidity of these natural places,” The speleologist Ioan Parti (1942-2022), former director of the Institute of Speleology “Emil Racoviță” of the Romanian Academy, showed.

The assault of the bats

In the 1970s, the team of the speleologist Ioan Parte made several incursions into the depths of Adam’s cave, located among the limestone rocks that watch the resort. The place is difficult to find and explore, its entrance form an avenue that descends 12 meters into a room fed by hot vapors.

Descending into the cave, the speleologists have discovered here a gallery adorned with flexible stalactites. Before reaching it, they went through a “hot corridor”, a low and steep gallery, which they descended, reaching an underground room from which another gallery, about 40 meters long, were sheltering thousands of bats.

“Strengthened by our presence and the light of the lamps with acetylene, they are stirred, then, descending from the places where they hang, they start a messy flight. We have to shelter, because, because of the very large number, losing the flight control, the bats are permanently hit by us,” John the burden remembered.

Flexible stalactites

After they exceeded the “hot strait” and the gallery inhabited by bats, the speleologists entered a 4-5 meter high gallery, which seemed to end after 6 meters long, with a suffocating atmosphere. At the end of it were the flexible stalactites, which seemed to dance on the cave ceiling.

“The 8-12 centimeters stalactites were swinging gracefully in the vapor current. reported the speleologist in the magazine “Magazine” in 1973.

Flexible stalactites are, according to specialists, rare cave formations, which grow in irregular directions, apparently contrary to gravity. They are formed by slow deposits of minerals, influenced by air currents and capillary pressures.

The exploration of the cave was resumed a few months later, when the speleologists observed a rhythmic interruption of the steam in the gallery with flexible stalactites.

“I tried to overcome the previously reached point and, with the price of some great efforts, we succeeded! A very low gallery, which we traveled, allowed us to enter a high and very high and very high, in a high hall. Vapor supply and I took samples for laboratory analyzes.the speleologist reported.

Again, however, a rash of hot steam made the speleologists rush to the exit, crawling through the narrow gallery of about 10 – 12 meters.

“So far, 12 attempts have been made in the galleries of this cave, by free diving, then with autonomous diver, but the water and rock stopped us every time. Together with the geologist N. Golopena and Păroiu Florian, we only submitted 30 meters on the active gallery, being stopped by a last siphon,” Unique phenomena for the country and extremely rare in the world. Are caves where the resistance of the speleologist is put to the test”, The researcher said, in 1973

Return to Adam’s cave

In the following years, Ioan burden returned to the mysterious cave in Băile Herculane on a cold November day, in which the speleologists observed an unusual decrease in vapor emanation. His team sought to find out the origin of the thermal waters that spring from the depths.

At the entrance, the temperature was only 18 degrees Celsius – had never dropped so much; Normally, it was constantly over 25 degrees Celsius. The head of the team, Ioan Paria, became restless. The others, only in the second incursion in that underground, suspected nothing. They arrived at the gallery where, usually hot steams went out.

“Now – total astonishment: no steam thread. The thermometer showed only 24.5 degrees Celsius, instead of at least 42 degrees Celsius”, The speleologist remembered, in another article, from Magazine magazine, written three years later, in 1976.

Ioan Parti and his colleague, Florin Brezorean, then entered the steam gallery, a narrow gallery, with walls covered by a gelatinous film, where they could not advance more than ten meters, due to the high temperature. Now, in the absence of steam, advancement was possible.

“They arrived in the room with the flexible stalactites, which were now hanging, more rigid and opaque, due to the absence of the steam current. A circular opening, 60-70 centimeters, indicated the direction of advancement. 33 degrees Celsius. inform Magazine magazine.

Were saved from choking

Glad to discover, the two speleologists carefully bypassed the thermal spring. The gallery widened, but the explorers became more and more worried.

If the emanation of vapor was restored, they had to cross 30 meters quickly, in the dark, through a corridor full of asperities. But curiosity defeated. They walked further, in a large room, with stalagmites and columns. It seemed like a “cold” cave, but a column touched proved soft – the fingers penetrated a few centimeters. Something was quite unusual.

“Then the choking came. The thermometer looked 38 degrees Celsius. From the nearby crack a thick steamer was now. In less than a minute, the temperature increased to 40 degrees Celsius. There was no time to hesitate. The two were rapidly crawling, exhausted.the authors of the article informed.

The expedition to Adam’s cave, with an explored length of about 170 meters, gave the speleologists the opportunity to know the origin of the hot caves.

“The morphology of the galleries, the form and the type of concretions of calcite, as well as their current degradation stage indicates that Adam’s avenue formed under the action of cold waters. the light of day ”, the speleologist said, who has researched the cave since 1971.

In the following decades other speleologists tried to explore the cave, most of them were stopped by the suffocating steam emanations of the place that some called “underground hell”.