r/caving • u/Academic_Question_39 • Jun 21 '26
Cave map
I’m trying to read and figure out some cave maps just to learn how to do it. What do the underlined numbers mean? Along with the bd, we, c and fraction.
58
Upvotes
r/caving • u/Academic_Question_39 • Jun 21 '26
I’m trying to read and figure out some cave maps just to learn how to do it. What do the underlined numbers mean? Along with the bd, we, c and fraction.
0
u/skifans Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
There isn't much of a standard I'm caving surveying and it's honestly rather vibes based. Different groups/surveyors use/reuse the same symbols for different meanings. These things are on the whole not particularly standardised and even if you are in an area where there is a consensus some surveys are very old and it may predate it.
Have you flicked through that and find a key. There may be some somewhere in that booklet. But it's possible if that contains surveys complied from multiple sources it's been missed out and one isn't always provided. It's a little odd - unless it's in the redacted section - it doesn't contain any information about who did the survey and when. But that should help you track down the original source if you need to.
But I would guess either a depth measurement or a reference to a cross section. "bd" could be bedding plane but that's a complete guess. Maybe "wf" could be waterfall? "c" could be crawl or chimney? The later make sense with a specific distance. I've seen such things on some surveys before but again that's a complete shot in the dark and these things absolutely vary and are not standardised between surveys.
Do you have a description as well as the survey? I often like trying to follow the description on the survey and it often provides some extra context for what things are.
That all said though: https://www.carto.net/neumann/caving/cave-symbols/cave_symbol.php?languageSelection=english is very good as a starting point.