Index to Cave Maps of Mexico

 

William R. Elliott, 2023/01/28

 

New maps: 

 

Soconusco Area, Municipio Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Chiapas 

 

This area in northern Chiapas was explored and mapped from 1993-1999 by 78 cavers. Two large systems, Sistema Soconusco-Aire Fresco and Sistema Arroyo Grande, many smaller caves, and trails were mapped. In the map, click on the “List of Surveyors” box to see a pdf of all the names. This was a major project, but a summary article is still needed.  

 

Sótano Uriel, Municipio Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca

 

A new map by Tommy Shifflett from the PESH project!

 

Recent maps: 

 

Nacimiento del Río Uluapan, Oaxaca

 

This map appeared on p 7 in Beyond the Sump: Nacimiento del Río Uluapan, Mexico, by Andreas Klocker and Steve Lambert, NSS News, Feb. 2021:4-9. The 2019 surveys by the Beyond the Sump team mapped 2097 m, mostly underwater and down to 100 m below the water surface. The system is still going and may be connected to neighboring caves. This is a major cave system in the Cerro Rabón Area 20 km SE of Huautla.

 

The AMCS Map Database

 

We have nearly 4,000 maps in our map database. The maps are listed in nested alphabetical order within a state, by system name, Alt Names, map name, and map year. You may scroll to find the cave name, or you may search for a name anywhere in the file. Use ctrl-f, type a key part of the name, and enter. Example: Bustamante or Palmito (in Nuevo León). The word search works across all fields. On mobile devices, use the “Find on Page” tool.

 

The old state map indexes are being replaced over time with new spreadsheet web pages that can be searched for any word or string, including a caver’s name. The word order in Spanish or any language no longer matters, as the caves will be alphabetized on the whole name and one can search for any part of the name. There are fields for MAP (cave or area map), LOCATION, MUNICIPIO, AREA, REGION, LENGTH, DEPTH, ELEVATION etc. So, one can find all the caves in a municipio, for instance. The CAVERS field includes all the known cavers who mapped the cave; search for a person’s last name usually, but most have their first name spelled out.

 

The BEST MAP field designates the one map that best represents a cave, and provides a counter for totals. Those who need to do complex searches may request an Excel spreadsheet file, xlsx format, which allows one to filter the fields. Contact William R. Elliott at speodesmus@gmail.com

 

Some cave maps have insufficient or incorrect information in their title blocks, especially municipio, which is like a USA county. We now check cave locations in the AMCS database in QGIS, and we correct municipio names based on INEGI data. For this public website, we omit words about sensitive features, such as cultural artifacts and fragile speleothems, but we have those notes in our source files if researchers need them.

 

Note that the numbers on some early maps are in feet. References to the published maps are no longer placed on the map image, but are in the REF field. The year that previously was placed at the bottom of the page is the year of publication, not the survey. See the MAP YEAR or CAVERS fields for survey dates.

 

When naming a cave, we encourage cavers to use the traditional, local name, if there is one. Have respect for Mexico by using proper Spanish spelling and grammar, or a native language, but some English cave names are well–known. Corrected names are in the MAP field, and alternate names are in the ALT NAMES field, even if misspelled or in a foreign language.

 

 

New format:  Compiled by William R. Elliott and volunteers.

 

Map Roundup The newest, longest, and deepest cave maps from the AMCS Activities Newsletter and other sources; 289 maps, 10 November 2020.

 

AMCS Bulletin 26 maps (2018)  All 59 maps, including area maps, in the new spreadsheet format. The whole book can be downloaded at AMCS Bulletin 26.

 

In the following summary table, “maps” are all versions of cave maps, “caves” are mapped caves including those within systems, and a “system” includes two or more connected caves with entrances at least 100 m apart.

 

	Maps	Caves	Systems
Coahuila	150	137	0
Chihuahua	59	53	0
Durango	4	6	0
Guerrero	213	153	2
Nuevo León	238	228	1
Oaxaca	543	344	8
Puebla	266	194	8
San Luis Potosí	522	389	1
Tabasco	63	53	0
Tamaulipas	330	232	1

 

Coming soon in the new format: Chiapas, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, and Querétaro. Send maps and info to William R. Elliott at speodesmus@gmail.com

 

State Indexes in the old format. Some caves are in the wrong state or municipio, but have been corrected in the new format:

 

Aguascalientes Baja California Norte Baja California Sur Campeche Chiapas Chihuahua Coahuila Colima Distrito Federal Durango Guanajuato

Guerrero Hidalgo Jalisco Estado de México Michoacán Morelos Nayarit Nuevo León Oaxaca Puebla Querétaro

Quintana Roo San Luis Potosí Sinaloa Sonora Tabasco Tamaulipas Tlaxcala Veracruz Yucatán Zacatecas

 

Abbreviations used in the old map indexes:

 

Cen.           Cenote

C.              Cueva

G.              Gruta

Nac.           Nacimiento

P.               Pozo

Res.           Resumidero

Sist.           Sistema

S.               Sótano

Sum.          Sumidero

 

Go to AMCS home page

 

Go to Cavelife home page

 

William R. Elliott, 28 January 2023