Dobšinská ice cave
The cave is located on the south-western edge of the Slovak Paradise National Park in the Spiš-Gemer Karst. The entrance to the cave is on the northern slope of the Duča hill at an altitude of 969 m, 130 m above the bottom of the Hnilc valley.
Dobšinská Ice Cave is a part of the Stratena Cave system. It was formed in the Mesozoic Middle Triassic light Steinalmian and Wetterstein limestones of the strath along tectonic faults and interlayer surfaces. It reaches a length of 1491 m and a vertical span of 75 m.
The main part of the cave is a huge cavity descending from the surface opening to a depth of 70 m. It was formed by breaking through the rock floors between the passages, which were created by the submerged palaeotok Hnilc in several development levels. Nowadays it is mostly filled with ice, in places reaching up to the ceiling and dividing the cave into separate parts (Small and Large Hall, Ruffíny Corridor, Ground Floor). The Collapsed Dome is partially ice-covered, the north-western edge of which extends under the nearby Duča sinkhole. The original river modelling shapes are remodelled by frost weathering.
The upper unglaciated parts of the cave consist mainly of horizontal passages and halls with typical river-modelled oval shapes and ceiling troughs. In the unglaciated parts there are also some forms of sinter fill (stalagmites, stalactites, sinter crusts, outcrops of soft white sinter).
