Hidden Earth 2023

More discoveries and future potential in the North York Moors

30 minute Lecture|Matt Ewles

Abstract

Back in 2020, within weeks of first lockdown ending, we (York Caving Club and North York Moors Caving Club) pumped out a third sump to discover 1km of new passage in Jenga Pot in the North York Moors. This started yet another era of exploration in the ever-expanding Jenga-Excalibur system. This talk will showcase these new extensions and discuss areas for future exploration, including a very recent (July 2023) extension that points towards a substantial unexplored higher level system!

We will also talk about recent work at our dig at Cawthorn, near Pickering, 6.5 km east of Jenga/Excalibur Pot. This is now at least 70m long, takes a stream in wet weather and draughts nicely. We have at least 100m vertical and 4km horizontal range here to the likely resurgences, so this offers great potential.

Will Jenga be connected to the River Dove to create a Dow/Providence style valley-to-valley through trip? Is there an extensive high-level network waiting to be discovered above the Jenga extensions? Will Cawthorn become the second mega-system for the North York Moors? Only time and effort will tell...