Sima Pumacocha (possibly from

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

''sima'' deep and dark cavern/abyss,

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

''puma''

cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...

, puma, ''qucha'' lake) is a

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

located in the

Lima Region The Department of Lima (), known as the Department of the Capital () until 1823, is a department and region located in the central coast of Peru; the seat of the regional government is Huacho. Lima Province, which contains the city of Lima, ...

, Yauyos Province,

Laraos District Laraos District is one of thirty-three districts of the province Yauyos in the Lima Region in Peru. Elderly people in Laraos still speak an archaic Quechua dialect. As no more children speak the language, it is in imminent danger of extinction. ...

, in central

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

near the village of Laraos, high in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

mountains. At 638 meters deep, it held the record for deepest known cave in South America from 2001 to 2006 when it was surpassed by Abismo Guy Collet. With the entrance being 4372 meters above sea level and the depth being over 500 meters, it is the highest major cave in the world. It is located at .

Setting

At 4,300 m to 4,400 m above sea level, the Pumaqucha valley is a typical Andes 'puna' – high, treeless, and surrounded by 5,000 m peaks. The valley is traversed by a dirt road serving active and abandoned mines nearby, and is dotted with stone huts used by locals tending flocks of

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

llama The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with ...

s and

alpaca The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. Traditionally, alpacas were kept in herds that grazed on the level heights of the Andes of Southern Peru, Western Bolivia, Ecuador, and Northern Chile. More recentl ...

s. At the head of the valley is Pumaqucha, a small lake which along with its catchment area sits atop Miocene age

granodiorite Granodiorite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

. Where the lake's outfall stream meets near-vertically bedded Cretaceous age Jumasha limestones, it has carved a short, shallow canyon containing several abandoned and one active sinkpoint where the entire stream disappears underground. Underlying the limestone is the Lower Cretaceous Pariatambo Formation. A small concrete canal, intended to keep the lake outfall on the surface by diverting it around the canyon, is in poor shape and normally does not function at all. When local repairs occur, the active sinkpoint (SP1) becomes enterable, but considerable water then leaks into the abandoned sinks (SP2 and SP3). On a regional scale, the long, irregular band of limestone containing Sima Pumaqucha and several other caves runs roughly south-southeast to north-northwest. The Pumaqucha waters sink at an elevation of 4,375 m above sea level, and are thought to resurge in the Rio Alis valley some 14 km to the north at an elevation of about 3,300 m above sea level.

Description

330px, Sign at Pumaqucha cave entrance 330px, Pumaqucha cave entrance Following the steeply-dipping limestone beds, Sima Pumaqucha generally consists of several vertical shafts connected by short sections of horizontal to steeply-sloping passages. Although closely grouped together, the three main entrances each lead to extensive independent passages before meeting underground. SP1 and SP2 are within 60 m of each other but their passages join at about the –300 m level, while SP3, a further 30 m away, is thought to join the main cave at a depth of –550 m based on observations of relative water volumes (SP3 is blocked at –120 m). All three entrances lead to big shafts: SP1 has the deepest shaft in the Andes (282 m), SP2 leads to the 113-meter-deep Ammonite Shaft, and SP3 is a 120 m shaft. Several fossilized

ammonite Ammonoids are extinct, (typically) coiled-shelled cephalopods comprising the subclass Ammonoidea. They are more closely related to living octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (which comprise the clade Coleoidea) than they are to nautiluses (family N ...

s up to 20 cm in diameter were observed within Ammonite Shaft’s walls. Below the junction of SP1 and SP2 are several wet shafts between 15 m and 75 m in depth, leading to a gravelled

sump Sump may refer to: * An infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers * Sump (cave), a permanently flooded section of a cave, where an underground flow of water exits the cave into the earth such that t ...

at –638 m. All explored passages have been surveyed, with a total length of 1,427 m. Some hoped the strong inward draught indicated a junction with a large underground river, but after losing strength near the sump they concluded it might be due to the cave’s own stream.

Exploration

Sima Pumaqucha was explored and surveyed during three international expeditions. *In June 2001 an expedition of five cavers ran out of rope and time at the head of The Perfect Storm at about –375 m. *In September 2002 an expedition of nine cavers reached the sump at –638 m, and located other cave entrances within the same limestone formation. * In September 2004 an expedition of fourteen cavers explored the SP1 series and five other caves, including Qaqa Mach'ay.Pumacocha 2004
cuevasdelperu.org

Setting

Description

Exploration

See also

References

Further reading