New Brunswick Caves

 

New Brunswick caves can be found in limestone, gypsum, and sandstone. While one does not connect caving with New Brunswick, it does have some very nice small caves of various origins. While there has been no continuing caving organization or group in New Brunswick there have been several different groups work independently which has lead to many different names . Most of the caves in New Brunswick are found on private lands so cavers should always ask before they explore. Caving can also be a cold experience with the underground temperature ranging from 2oC in the north to 6oC in the south. Currently, the best publication on the caves of New Brunswick is an Open File 97-7 titled "The Caves of Southwestern New Brunswick" written by Arseneault, S.P., Schroeder,J., Berube, D. for the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources and Energy.

Sandstone Caves

Sandstone or sea caves are found in several place along the NB coast. In the St Martin's area there are four sea cave with the best known being Echo cave. In the bay of Fundy sea cave can be found in Fundy National Park and The Rocks park in Hopewell. There are also a number of small sea caves in the Jacquet River area of northern New Brunswick.

Gypsum Caves

Large deposits of gypsum can be found in Victoria county and Albert county. In Albert country there are several caves with large rooms while Victoria county contains mostly surface karst features and only very small caves.

Limestone Caves

There are a number of small bands of limestone found in the southern part of New Brunswick all which have caves. Most of the caves are small and formations are rare.


New Brunswick's Ten Longest and Deepest Caves

Longest /Deepest

White Cave

515 m

Greenhead Cave

26.7 m

Berryton Cave

332 m

Acadia Cavern

25 m

Catherine's Cave

264 m

Underground Lake Cave

13.1 m

Underground Lake Cave

141 m

Howe's Cave

13.0 m

Kitt's Cave

141 m

Glebe Pot

12.5 m

Howe's Cave

120 m

Shaft Cave

11.2 m

Chantal's Cave

100 m

Glebe Test Pit

9.8 m

Dalling's Cave

98 m

Waterford Ice Cave

9.0 m

Lost Brook Cave

79 m

White Cave

8.3 m

Harbells Cave

74 m

Kitt's Cave

8.0 m

Cave length and depth of New Brunswick Caves are constantly changing with every new discovery and lead pushed, so this list is subject to a great deal of change in the near future.


Cave Hunting in New Brunswick

There are three locations where hunting for new caves has some great potential. In the Waterford area of south central part of New Brunswick is a layer of limestone capped in sandstone. There is a large amount of water that flows into sinks at the edge of the limestone deposit. In the area of Lost Brook near Albert Mine west to the Berrington Hills in the southeastern part of New Brunswick there are a number of streams the disappear into the limestone with many possible locations for new caves. Finally, just east of Plaster Rock in north central part of New Brunswick is a large deposit of high grade gypsum with limestone on the outer edge and a hill of sandstone in the center that has a great deal of potential for finding caves.


 

For more information please contact : Eric Hendrickson

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This page created November 3, 1998.

Last updated 18-Nov-1998.