Titan (cave) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Titan |
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Speedwell Cavern, which provided initial access to Titan
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| Location | Castleton |
| Depth | 141.5 metres (464 ft) |
| Length | 17 kilometres (10.6 mi) |
| Discovery | 1999 |
Titan is an amazing natural cave in the Peak District of Derbyshire, England. It's famous for having the deepest natural shaft (a deep, vertical drop) of any known cave in Britain. This shaft goes down a whopping 141.5 metres (464 ft), which is like falling from a 40-story building!
Titan's existence was first announced in 2006. However, it was actually discovered much earlier, on January 1, 1999. This happened after cavers found new connections from an old mine called James Hall Over Engine Mine to two other well-known caves: Speedwell Cavern and Peak Cavern. Before Titan, the deepest known underground shaft in Britain was Gaping Gill in the Yorkshire Dales.
Contents
What is Titan Cave?
Titan is a huge underground space, a bit like a giant natural tunnel or room. It's located near the village of Castleton. The cave system is very long, stretching over 17 kilometres (11 mi) in total.
How Titan Was Found
The story of Titan's discovery is quite exciting. A caver named Dave Nixon, also known as "Moose," was a key person in finding it. He was a leader of a group of cavers in the Peak District.
Moose found an old document written in the 1700s by a person named James Plumtree. This old account described a network of passages and shafts that went deeper than anyone thought possible near Speedwell Cavern.
The Search Begins
Plumtree's old writings talked about going deep into the Speedwell Cave system. He mentioned mined passages that went far above what had been explored at the time. He even wrote about a way out to the surface, about 230 meters above, through "another man's mine."
This old information led cavers to the shaft of James Hall's Over Engine Mine (JH). The Hall family were miners in Castleton long ago. They often worked in lead mining.
At the bottom of the JH shaft, cavers found many blockages. It took them seven years to clear these! They found miners' initials on the walls of Speedwell Cavern, Peak Cavern, and JH. This showed that old miners had used these paths to get from the surface down to Speedwell Cavern.
Exploring Leviathan and Beyond
Eventually, the cavers found an old miners' workplace. This led them to Leviathan, a huge natural shaft that had been changed by mining. Leviathan was about 260 feet (79 m) deep. The team found many old mining tools and items left exactly where the miners had left them.
The team then spent three more years clearing a massive pile of boulders. This hard work finally gave them access to Speedwell Cavern. They also had to build a small railway to clear another huge blockage at the bottom of Leviathan. This dig eventually led them into a part of Peak Cavern called the Far Sump extension. Before this, you could only reach this area by diving through water or by very difficult caving from Speedwell Cavern.
The Discovery of Titan
Moose and his team later went to this area of Peak Cavern through the JH mine. They arrived at the bottom of a huge pile of boulders, very close to the Far Sump. The group then found a way up through this massive boulder pile. And there it was: the foot of Titan!
When they shouted, the echoes and the sound of a waterfall told them it was a huge shaft. Their lights showed what looked like the top about 60 metres (200 ft) above them. They called this spot "The Event Horizon."
But "The Event Horizon" was just a narrow part leading to a large ledge. The shaft kept going up into the darkness! A six-day climb finally led them to the domed roof of Titan. There was no way to go further up. However, a passage from the west, about 20 metres (66 ft) further down, is thought to be where the stream that helped form this giant cave comes from.
The West Passage was blocked by a very dangerous pile of hanging boulders. It was too risky to explore. So, the cavers dug a new 46-metre (151 ft)-deep access shaft from the surface. This took over four years to dig! This new shaft now lets people get into the main Titan shaft near the top. Cavers are still digging to try and find more passages in other directions. The entire cave system is now over 11 miles (18 km) long!
Titan cave is located near Castleton, Derbyshire, at 53°20′0.09″N 1°47′35.85″W / 53.3333583°N 1.7932917°W.
Images for kids
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Peak Cavern, which also provides access to Titan.
