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Jamaican Caving Notes |
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Cross Keys High School Cave June 8, 2006 - 10:00-11:30 EST |
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District: Cross Keys |
Parish: Manchester |
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WGS84 L/L: 17 53 41.6, 77 30 10.7 |
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JAD69: 196590 E, 138150 N |
JAD2001: 696701 E, 638439 N |
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Altitude: 600m WGS84 |
Accuracy: +/- 15m horizontal; +/- 20m vertical |
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Type: Breakdown maze |
Accessibility: Scramble |
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Depth: 12 |
Length: 15m |
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Explorers: JCO June 8, 2006 |
Survey: None |
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JU Ref: N/A |
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Entrance size: 2m W x 3m H |
Entrance aspect: 270 deg true |
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Vegetation in general locale: Farm, scrub |
Vegetation at entrance: Scrub |
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Rock type: Yellow limestone (?) |
Bedding: Poor |
Jointing: Strong |
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Speleothems: Stals |
Palaeo resources: Undetermined |
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Archaeo resources: None |
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Hydrology: Seasonal input |
Siltation: Some |
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Dark zone: 75%. |
Climate: Warm, semi-humid. |
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Bats: None |
Bat guano: N/A |
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Guano mining: N/A |
Guano condition: N/A |
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Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some |
Neoditomyia farri: None |
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Amblypygids: None |
Periplaneta americana: None |
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Cave crickets: None |
Sesarma: None |
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Other species: Araneae - G. cavernicola (?) |
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Visitation: Occasional - local |
Speleothem damage: None |
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Graffiti: None |
Garbage: Much |
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Ownership: Govt - school |
Protection: None |
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Vulnerability: Low |
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Cross Keys High School Cave June 8, 2005 Team: RS Stewart, E Slack, J Pauel, M Taylor, A Yovandich Notes: RS Stewart On the evening of June 7, we had stayed once again at Marcia's in Cross Keys. At the cookshop, we had been told about a cave on the grounds of the high school, and that it was very deep. There was nothing listed in that area, so we decided to have a look at it the next morning. Soon after having breakfast on the morning of June 8, we loaded up with gear and went in search of the high school cave (the "guide" who had promised to show it to us had not met us at the cookshop as he had promised). This proved to be fairly easy; we rolled up to the gate of the school, told the gate-keeper what we were about, he called up to the school, got the word soon after to send us up to the office, and fifteen minutes later we had one of the school employees taking us to the site. The entrance to the cave is located in a gulley 150m due north of the school. Water enters it during rainy times, carrying in a certain amount of trash from the gully with it. The cave itself is a breakdown maze and has no real chambers or passages, although a seasonal flow does appear to continue onwards through boulder-choked crevices. The depth is only about 12m, but it seems somewhat more than this due to the tight scrambles involved in getting to the bottom. Inwards, it only extends some fifteen metres until it becomes too tight. Elizabeth explored the last, smallest part, for a couple of metres, but it became too tight. A video of her sliding into this squeeze can be found linked to at the top of this page. The rock did not appear to be regular white limestone - perhaps either cretaceous (Maestrichtian) or yellow limestone. A local name is "Cow Titty Cave", but we have decided to list this minor site as Cross Keys High School instead. |
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