Journal Article
News in the Kugitangtou caves exploration
Maltsev, V.A.
Record Number:
4577
Year:
1996
Journal:
Journal of Cave and Karst Studies
Pages:
212
Volume:
December 1996
Abstract:
Kugitangtou Ridge caves are atypical in all the senses.
Speleothems are extremely variable, beautiful, and rare. Cave
fauna age estimation contradict the known geological history
of the area. Along with huge and beautiful chambers’ existence,
all of the last 15 years of finds (including huge new
areas) appear from extensive digging through narrow collapsed
mazes that makes exploration doubly hard—both for technical
and psychological reasons.
Nowadays, the largest cave is Cupp-Coutunn Main, 61 km.
long. Four more large caves (1.5 km, 3.2 km, 4.2 km, 8.5 km)
share the same hydrological system. In the other 10-15 systems,
no systematic exploration has begun, and only 1-3 km
caves are known.
The last scientific studies in the caves show very interesting
things: how minor changes in the cave environment (digging
through narrow passages) may cause speleothem dissolution
or vice versa (fast new speleothem growth).
The last expedition (April 1996) displayed two new ecological
problems with the Kugitangtou caves, that are yet to be
solved: a) As a result of great economic difficulties in
Turkmenistan, the caves are again considered as a source of
cheap “marble onyx” souvenirs—striped calcite from flowstones.
A new mining project might start in about a year. b)
The Provull cave, residence of the troglobitic loach (a unique
troglobitic fish), is polluted. In spite of all the efforts for its
conservation, declared by the Turkmenistan government, a
new sheep farm was located nearby, and this spring several
tons of sheep feces were moved by a mudflow into the
entrance. It’s still unknown whether the blind loaches survived
after it.
Times Cited:
1
Relevent Species:
Related Records:
Parin, N.V. and Dolzhansky, V.Y (1982)
Noemacheilus starostini, the first blind cave fish for the fauna of the USSR
Parin, N.V. (1983)Noemacheilus (troglocobitis) starostini sp. n. (Osteichthyes,Cobitidae) Novaya slepay a ryba iz podzemnykh vod Kuritangtau (Turkmeniya) [Noemacheilus (Troglocobitis) starostini sp. n. (Osteichthyes, Cobitidae) a new blind fish from subterranean waters of
Smirnov, S. (1983)A blind cave loach from south-western Asia, Noemacheilus starostini Parin
Pereladov, M. (1989)Some aspects of disribution of fishes in the subaquatic caves near Kugitang-Tau Mountains
Zalesskaja, N.T. (1989)On the progres in Soviet biospeleology in the 1980s
Zalesskaya, N.T. and Golovatch, S.I. (1989)The condition of biospeleology in the USSR
Maltsev, V.A. and Self, C.A. (1992)Cupp-Coutunn cave system, Turkmenia, Central Asia
Maltsev, V.A. (1996)News in the Kugitangtou caves exploration
Maltsev, V. and Korshunov, V. (1998)Geochemistry of fluorite and related features of the Kugitangtou Ridge Caves, Turkmenistan
Salnikov, V.B. (2006)Ichthyofauna of the Kugitang reservoirs
Kolvoort, I. and Kolvoort, W. (2008)Blindganger in de onderwaterwerelo
Prokofiev, A.M. (2009)Problems of the classification and phylogeny of nemacheiline loaches of the group lacking the preethmoid I (Cypriniformes: Balitoridae: Nemacheilinae)
Prokofiev, A.M. (2010)Morphological classification of loaches (Nemacheilinae)
Kottelat, M. (2012)Conspectus cobitidum: An inventory of the loaches of the world (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei)
Shilin N.I. and Pereladov M.V. (2013)The Koytendag (Kugitang) blind charr is a rare and vulnerable representative of the cave ichthyofauna
Collette, B.B. (2013)Obituaries. Nikolai Vasil’evich Parin (1932–2012)
Turbanov, I.S., Palatov, D.M. and Golovatch, S.I. (2016)The state of the art of biospeleology in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union: a review of the cave (endogean) invertebrate fauna. 1. Introduction—Crustacea
Turbanov, I.S., Palatov, D.M. and Golovatch, S.I. (2016)The state of the art of biospeleology in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union: a review of the cave (endogean) invertebrate fauna. 2. Arachnida - Acknowledgements
Turbanov, I.S., Palatov, D.M. and Golovatch, S.I. (2016)The state of the art of biospeleology in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union: a review of the cave (endogean) invertebrate fauna. 3. References
Sendra, A., Sket, B. and Stoev, P. (2017)A striking new genus and species of troglobitic Campodeidae (Diplura) from Central Asia
Sidorov, D., Hou, Z. and Sket, B. (2018)Three new remarkable amphipod species (Crustacea: Gammaridae) from springs and subterranean waters of Central Asia
Decu, V., Juberthie, C., Iepure, S., Gheorghiu, V. and Nazareanu, G. (2019)An overview on the subterranean fauna from central Asia
Welch, G. and Stoev, P. (2019)A report of RSPB-supported scientific research at Koytendag State Nature Reserve, East Turkmenistan
Zimmerman, B., Jones, R. and Ball, S. (2019)Fishes. In: A report of RSPB-supported scientific research at
Koytendag State Nature Reserve, East Turkmenistan. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, 42-58 pp.
Sket, B., Stoev, P., Deltshev, C., Marusik, Y. and Deharveng, L. (2019)Cave fauna. In: A report of RSPB-supported scientific research at Koytendag State Nature Reserve, East Turkmenistan
Degtyarev, A. and Pereladov, M. (2019)Hydrogeology
Karimov, B. (2020)Troglocobitis starostini. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T39461A156723710
Komarov, V. (2021)New species of cave fauna discovered in Koytendag
Freyhof, J., Geiger, M.F., Ball, S. and Zimmerman, B. (2022)DNA barcode data confirm the placement of subterranean Noemacheilus (Troglocobitis) starostini Parin 1983 in the genus Paracobitis (Teleostei, Nemacheilidae)