Montreal’s Underground Cavern

While the focus of investigations in Hidden Hydrology are often around the lost, buried and disappeared, the true nature of the hidden comes up in some interesting ways.  A recent article via the CBC discusses a new find “‘This is a major discovery’: Explorers find massive ice-age cavern beneath Montreal” and discusses a hidden “Cathedral-like chamber, formed more than 15,000 years ago, [which also] features underground lake”.

The spot was found by cavers who busted through a wall in the popular the Saint-Leonard Cavern,  The cavers, “Le Blanc and Caron said they were able to pinpoint the location of the passageway using a dowsing rod, similar to the wooden divination tools sometimes used to find groundwater.  The two men, who first got into caving as a hobby, said they’ve been searching for an unknown branch of the Saint-Léonard cavern for years.”

A video of the exploration:

While groundwater and aquifers are well known to exist in cities, the relationship of surface and subsurface geology and hydrology makes for some interesting interactions with hidden hydrological regimes – in this case subterranean interface with the aquifer. Perhaps few examples as extreme as this in modern cities, but interesting to see something hidden for years emerging after so long.

Source of the header image:  Massive Underground Cavern Formed During Ice Age Discovered By Amateur Explorers (IBT)