Sistema Huautla is a cave system in the Sierra Mazateca mountains of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca . As of April 2021 it is the deepest cave system in the Western Hemisphere, 1,560 metres (5,120 ft) from top to bottom, with over 55 miles of mapped passageways. It is the tenth deepest cave in the world. It is also the 26th longest cave system with over 100 km length.
11-660: Sistema Huautla is a cave system in the Sierra Mazateca mountains in the Teotitlán District of the Cañada region in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca . It is below the municipalities of Huautla de Jimenez , Huautepec and Mazatlan Villa de Flores . As of April 2021 it was 100.2 kilometres (62.3 mi) long (end to end) with 25 distinct entrances and a depth measurement of 1,560 metres (5,120 ft) from its highest known entrance to its lowest reached point. System Huautla
22-645: Is a mountainous area, part of the Sierra Madre de Oaxaca mountain range, located in the northern part of the state of Oaxaca in Southern Mexico . It is named after the Mazatec people , who are indigenous to the area. Notable figures from the area include María Sabina Magdalena García , a shaman and poet. Its western part is within the district of Teotitlan del Camino in the Cañada Region ; and its eastern part
33-654: Is a town, and the surrounding municipality of the same name, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca . It is some 50 km west of Tuxtepec , and is part of the Tuxtepec District of the Papaloapan Region . The municipality is at an altitude of 140 meters above sea level, and covers 154.38 km , located on the left bank of the Santo Domingo river . The climate is hot, averaging 24.7 °C year round, with rainfall in
44-643: Is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere and the tenth deepest cave in the world; it is listed as the twenty-eighth longest at about 55.3 miles surveyed passage compared to the Mammoth Cave complex at 420+ miles. In 1965 cavers from Austin, Texas exploring the Sierra Mazateca mountains found several large caves; During the 1960s North American cavers subsequently gathered survey data and generated maps which showed their proximity to each other. Over time
55-563: Is within the district of Tuxtepec , in the Papaloapan Region . The main towns of the region are Huautla de Jimenez , Eloxochitlán de Flores Magón and Jalapa de Díaz . In 1954 the eastern part of the Sierra Mazateca region was submerged by the construction of the Miguel Alemán Dam , now under Miguel Alemán Lake reservoir. 18°22′48″N 99°06′00″W / 18.3800°N 99.1000°W / 18.3800; -99.1000 Jalapa de D%C3%ADaz San Felipe Jalapa de Díaz
66-462: The Sótano de San Agustin was found to be connected to La Grieta and Nita Nanta , and eight more cave entrances were discovered. It became clear that they belonged to one cave system, Sistema Huautla. As of 2015 it is known to have 20 entrances. In an expedition in 1977, the deepest point of the cave system was discovered after staging multiple underground camps, a flooded tunnel at 1325 meters, known as
77-557: The San Agustín sump . Subsequent scuba diving expeditions in 1979 and 1981 proved logistically insufficient to transport equipment to explore it further. In 1994, during a 135-day expedition of 44 people, mostly from the UK and the US, 11 were cave diving using closed cycle life support systems called rebreathers . They explored three parts of the sump system and discovered an upstream tunnel leading to
88-568: The cave a total length of 64.2 kilometers. A navigable connection between where water enters Sistema Huautla and where it exits at Peña Colorada has yet to be found. Since then consecutive annual expeditions have been launched as part of the Proyecto Espeleológico Sistema Huautla (PESH). In 2018, an international team of 24 cavers could not find a connection of the nearby Cueva de La Peña Colorada Sump VII with Sistema Huautla during their two-month long expedition. In 2022,
99-681: The development of 100 kilometers is reached. Sistema Huautla is a karst groundwater basin. In 1994, dye tracing established Nita He and Nita Nashi as tributary caves via 1,100-meter-deep flow paths. The western hydrological boundary is the Huautla Santa Rosa Fault, in the East it is the Agua de Cerro Fault and in the North the Plan de Escoba Fault. Cave dive sites: Sierra Mazateca The Sierra Mazateca
110-466: The months of June, July, August, September and October. Forested areas contain fig, avocado, mahogany, oak, cedar, limaloe, palm and ceiba hormiguillo. Wildlife includes deer, brocket deer, jaguar, white-tailed deer, gray fox, porcupine, armadillo and raccoon. The municipality includes the following communities: The main economic activity is agriculture, with crops that include large-scale coffee, corn, beans, sugar cane, medicinal plants and fodder. Some of
121-521: The only known exit for the water that enters the Huautla caves, the spring of Peña Colorada. During a two-month expedition in 2013 involving 40 team members from the UK, USA, Canada, Poland and Mexico, cavers entered through Sótano de San Agustin; it took divers three weeks to reach "what looked like a calm, rock-enclosed lake about 100 feet wide", the San Agustín sump. One of them established a new record depth when stopping at 1545 meters. The new survey data gave
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