Grottes et karsts de Chine... Sur les traces de Xu Xiake
Gebihe 89 Contents

Chapter 2: the river system of Gebihe, Ziyun county (Guizhou)


Résumé -Abstract - Zusammenfassung -:The Gebihe underground system is located in SW Guizhou, in Ziyun County, on the south versant of the Miaoling range (cone-karst, ouvalas and poljes). It  spreads out in limestones and dolomites of Carboniferous and Permian. It is a tunnel-cave going through one limb of the Jiaoma syncline in an E-W direction. At the resurgence, the discharge  is 4 to 5 cumecs at low water and more than 50 cumecs during monsoon floods (about 25 cumecs average discharge). Old cave levels have been cut by erosion and follow the base level lowering caused by the Tertiary uplift.
 The known part is 12 km long and 418 m deep (445 m to the resurgence). We discovered a 7.7 km upstream system composed of the two sinkholes : Dadong (its porch is 116 m high) and Gebong, which lead to large underground lakes. Two collapse pitches are on the route : one, 370 m high, at the beginning of Dadong and another, 210 m high, in the middle of the plateau. Downstream, the cave stops on two sumps : one in the main stream and the other in a vast passage draining off the floods (50 m of water rising).
 The downstream passages, 4.2 km long, have been explored from the resurgence. At a distance of 500 m from the entrance, the Miaos chamber, 700 m long, 200 m wide and 70 m high, is the second largest known in the world after Sarawak chamber in Mulu (Malaysia). During floods, the river overflows into this room.

Keywords: Tunnel-cave, sinkhole, cone karst, polje, ouvala, aven, subterranean lake, resurgence, Gebihe, Ziyun, Guizhou.


Karstologia Mémoires N° 4 Année 1991 GEBIHE 89 - ISSN : 0751-7628