Jamaican Caving Notes

Tyre Sump Cave

May 11, 2005 - 8:30-9:00 EST

District: Tyre

Parish: Trelawny

WGS84 L/L: 18 15 57.2, 77 37 16.1

JAD69: 184206 E, 179250 N

JAD2001: 684317 E, 679539 N

Altitude: 510m WGS84

Accuracy: +/- 10m horizontal; +/- 15m vertical

Type: Sumped passage

Accessibility: Swim

Depth: 2m

Length: 15m

Explorers: Liverpool - 1977

Survey: Liverpool - 1977

JU Ref: Text - pg 363; Map - pg 362

Entrance size: 2m W x 2m H

Entrance aspect: Undetermined

Vegetation in general locale: Bush, farm

Vegetation at entrance: Flood meadow

Rock type: Yellow - White limestone junction

Bedding: Strong

Jointing: Moderate

Speleothems: None

Palaeo resources: None

Archaeo resources: None

Hydrology: Wet

Siltation: Low

Sink: Dry

Rising: N/A

Stream passage with surface activity: Standing pool

Stream passage without surface activity:

Dark zone: 0%.

Climate: Cool, humid.

Bats: None

Bat guano: N/A

Guano mining: N/A

Guano condition: N/A

Eleutherodactylus cundalli: Some

Neoditomyia farri: None

Amblypygids: None

Periplaneta americana: None

Cave crickets: None

Sesarma: None seen

Other species: None seen

Visitation: None

Speleothem damage: None

Graffiti: None

Garbage: None

Ownership: Forestry Reserve

Protection: None

Vulnerability: Low. The cave is not large, and consists mostly of one sumped chamber. It is occasionally used by farmers as a water source, but they are not leaving garbage at the entrance that would wash in.

Tyre Sump Cave

May 11, 2005

Team: Stewart, Conolley, Slack

Notes: RS Stewart

This site was located while searching for Tyre Sump and Dalby's Stream Cave. It somewhat matches the Liverpool map, it is a sump, and it is in Tyre. It is well known by the people of the district and is used in dry-season as a water source. The JU listed position does not match, but JU plots it on the side of a hill, not in a cockpit that would hold a sumped chamber, so the coordinates cannot be trusted. Therefore, we are designating this site as Tyre Sump Cave, with a position accurate enough to avoid confusion in the future. It should be noted, though, that there are probably a number of similar sites in the local district, so this isn't necessarily the one Liverpool found.

A joint to a bedding-plane entrance, at the end of a short streambed, leads to a drop of a couple of metres into a pool in a chamber about 6m across. The water is deep. We did not see a continuing shaft on the other side, as indicated in the Liverpool map, but it might have been beyond where the low ceiling of the chamber intersected the water. Conditions had been rainy for weeks before our visit. The airspace in much of the chamber was well under a metre, and judging by the mud outside of the entrance, the entire chamber goes underwater at times.

No Sesarma were seen, or trogs. This is not a bat-roost (it floods). The chamber is all twilight zone.

We are listing this site with a low vulnerability, but future conditions are dependent on land-use above the cockpit. It is just within the Forestry Reserve border, so this might prove to be helpful in its preservation.