A cave discovered during excavation work by Israel Railways in Jerusalem contains the largest and most impressive underground water sources ever discovered in Israel, scholars say.
The cave was discovered near the International Convention Center in the capital during construction work on a station for the future high speed Jerusalem-Tel Aviv train line. Builders came across it while digging a service shaft at a depth of 75 meters – five meters from the planned bottom of the shaft.
Over the past few days, scholars from the Cave Research Unit of the Hebrew University’s Department of Geography, who were called to the scene by engineering companies working with Israel Railways, have been crawling through the underground nooks and crannies. “It’s hard work, crawling through mud into a cave the end of which we haven’t reached yet,” Prof. Amos Frumkin, head of the unit, said. Frumkin said the cave is between a half a meter to a few meters wide, and is a few dozen meters high.
According to an initial survey by Frumkin’s team, the cave developed as water seeped in from the surface and dissolved the limestone. The resulting cavern is known as a karstic cave, named after the region in Slovenia where the phenomenon was first documented. The surveyors said that during their initial exploration, they found water flowing through the cave from northwest to southeast.
Frumkin estimates the cave to be about 200 meters long but that it could be longer. A small canyon at the end of the segment that has so far been checked plunges through cracks down into a series of waterfalls.
Frumkin says the cave “puts Israel on the map of tropical and temperate karstic regions where underground streams are common.”
The cave also has hydrological significance because it is part of the mountain aquifer, an underground reservoir into which rainwater flows from the surface, and that extends all along Israel’s central mountain range, Frumkin says. “The study of the cave can help us understand the precise mechanism by which water flows through the aquifer in the Jerusalem area,” he adds.
It will also help researchers understand how pollution leaches into the ground from the surface. Researchers usually have to drill wells to study this problem, but the newly discovered cave allows a direct look into the aquifer.
As opposed to the cave discovered in the Ramle area a few years ago, which contained crustaceans previously unknown to science, Frumkin says only microscopic life-forms were found in his explorations. Nevertheless, he says the cave must be protected as a valuable natural phenomenon, and that this can be accomplished without impeding construction of the railway station.
More and more:
BusinessWeek: Looking for an Oil Boom in Israel’s Napa Valley
Gotta love the name of the project manager in this oil project! 🙂
Um……
There is only one G_d and He is the G_d of Israel.
As long as you don’t mean Allahu Akbar.
Oh!
Surely G_d is great!!!
Glorious news! Oil is now seen as a sure find not just natural gas.
I read today that the Bank of Israel forecasts a 5.2% growth for 2011 and full employment! L’CHAIM! And remember some the best wines in the world are also Israeli.
I BELIEVE that such things are not incidental.
Make Aliah good friends. Leave Soetoro, Clinton, Comeron, Zarkosee, the islamics etal to their devices.
Regardless of how many times the poison dwarf assaults Jews, we will all enjoy seeing that item follow in the footsteps of all the others that caused harm to our people.
Play with matches? Get burned.
See me in number 3. 🙂
Israel’s Coast May Be Gold Mine of Oil, Says Government Expert
Israel may have the last laugh to the old joke that “Moses took the wrong turn in the desert,” going to a land of sand instead of oil, which may be waiting to be found under the sea, says a government oil expert.
A geological map presented at Hebrew University last week shows that the Levant Basin, which includes the huge Leviathan gas field, may contain large quantities of oil in deep strata. MORE
Back in the 70’s when I lived in Yamit and we controlled all of the Sinai, Israel discovered very deep underwater lake so large that it could supply 10 times Israels then population for at least a hundred years . Water was found to be so pure it was virtually mineral free.
Hi, Norman. Long time no see you here.
The “eastern sea” mentioned in Zechariah refers to the Dead Sea. What this discovery means is one day the Dead Sea, will become “alive” again through the miracle of fresh water.
The “western sea” of course is the Mediterranean and here Jerusalem’s aquifer will supply the coastal plain with fresh water!
And nothing in the world happens by mere chance, coincidence or blind fate.
Anybody notice the more the world acts against us the stronger we become? Only thing holding us back today is BB.
I expect that the Arabs will immediately claim that all that water belongs to them and the U.N. will pass a resolution condemning Israel for stealing Arab water. I expect that Obama will suggest moving the so-called ’67 lines so that the water will then be inside land that will go to the Arabs. It must be so frustrating for all the anti-Semites that despite all their hateful efforts, tiny Israel continues to thrive.
With everything that is happening in Israel, I don’t understand how the rest us aren’t making aliyah plans right now. We clearly enjoy G-d’s blessings!
Hmmm, We find zillions of mc of natural gas, some oil, and now water, at a time when all the nations of the world are conspiring against us. something is happening. I don’t buy coincidences when it comes to jewish history.
Who needs water!
Well, well! 🙂
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.” – Zechariah 14:8 (but read the whole chapter)
Going out to buy a pail and shovel set right now!
Interesting: First we find mother-loads of natural gas, some oil and now water. All at a Time when it appears all of the nations of the world are conspiring against us.
There seems to be a message here? “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”