General - Water levels dropping

[DaveFM]

With all the dry weather recently most mines with flooding should have seen varying degrees of lower water levels, so there could be opportunities to push further into normally flooded areas of mines. These two pictures of the same spot were taken in February and last week respectively.

 

[dweeb]

Interesting.

Nice wheels!

 

[RichardB]

Your June picture is about the same as my June picture from 2010, in fact it's possibly slightly lower in mine. That's slightly disappointing because I thought the water would be exceptionally low after the extended dry spell we've had. It does back up my theory though, that the weather has little bearing on the water levels inside the mine.

 

[Hutchy95]

I’m guessing this place is a no go... unless you want to scuba dive it?

 

[DaveFM]

I’m guessing this place is a no go... unless you want to scuba dive it?

The submerged sections (about 50%of the mine) are totally underwater and would only be accessible to divers but theres still an awful lot of explorable areas, its the deeper sections to the south and east that are submerged, the western half of the mine is mostly dry though quite muddy in places.

 

[The Lone Ranger]

Not sure how much an effect a long dry spell would have on water levels in a mine, as they tend to be flooded due to the ground water rather than a through flow, probably talking inches which the photo shows.

We were given the task many years ago to survey a cave system as it had never been surveyed and a housing estate was to be built above. Was sent in after a very dry month in August when the stream flow was greatly reduced. Had been told a through trip was possible as it had been done before. Alas we bailed after surveying about 60% of it as it was tight and even with a low flow many sections were flooded to almost roof level.

Researching the system afterwards we found out it had had only been done end to end the once, this was in 1961 after the feeder stream had frozen solid so there was no water flow.

 

[Hutchy95]

The submerged sections (about 50%of the mine) are totally underwater and would only be accessible to divers but theres still an awful lot of explorable areas, its the deeper sections to the south and east that are submerged, the western half of the mine is mostly dry though quite muddy in places.

Thanks I literally had no idea such a place was in the uk, do you know if anyone has ever divided this mine before?

 

[LittleOwl]

Places like this really make me want to take up scuba diving

 

[DaveFM]

Thanks I literally had no idea such a place was in the uk, do you know if anyone has ever divided this mine before?

There are quite a few flooded mines in the UK that could be dived in though I've never heard of anyone diving in Cults, a bit of a problem with Cults is that the entrance that leads to the deep sections is blocked up leaving just a narrow gap at the top, not very convenient for divers to access. Pics show the flood point in the far eastern adit and looking back toward the sealed entrance (its just barely possible to squeeze through the gap at the top but I nearly got stuck when I went in by this entrance!)

 

[The Lone Ranger]

This is an interesting read about a dive attempt in the Coniston Copper Mines, you often see a bit of string disappearing into a water filled shaft and wonder what's down there.

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/documents/Coniston-Copper-Mine/CAT-mines-dive.pdf

 

[Lord Oort]

Ahhh come to the Forest, we get awesome water level fluctuations. Some places will drop as far as 30 odd feet which means we can access entire levels for about 3 months of the year.

 

[DaveFM]

plan of the deepest innermost section of the Cults mine, the area to the lower left is nowadays about 120ft beneath the current water table. The positions of the various drainage pumps are marked.

 

[Hutchy95]

There are quite a few flooded mines in the UK that could be dived in though I've never heard of anyone diving in Cults, a bit of a problem with Cults is that the entrance that leads to the deep sections is blocked up leaving just a narrow gap at the top, not very convenient for divers to access. Pics show the flood point in the far eastern adit and looking back toward the sealed entrance (its just barely possible to squeeze through the gap at the top but I nearly got stuck when I went in by this entrance!)

Ahhhh right I see, yeah definitely not practical with a load of diving equipment then haha! Would be a ball ache getting everything though, I think I’ll look into it more and ask a few things at the diving club.
Thanks for for that

 

[DaveFM]

a flood point in the central area, its unclear whether the deep areas could be accessed from here, also getting to this point involves a lot of rough ground and the odd bit of clambering, not ideal for kitted up divers.

 

[DaveFM]

Ahhh come to the Forest, we get awesome water level fluctuations. Some places will drop as far as 30 odd feet which means we can access entire levels for about 3 months of the year.

Thats a remarkable fluctuation in levels, if the level in Cults dropped that much it would open up considerable areas currently inaccessible.