The Moraig Exploration Group (GEM) has achieved a new milestone in the study of the Riu del Moraig, also known as Riu Blanc. On their latest expedition, carried out this week, cave divers reached a depth of 3.060 meters from the mouth of the sea, surpassing the mark of 2.800 meters achieved in 2023.
Thanks to this progress, GEM has documented 260 meters of new galleries, bringing the total number of galleries and structures explored to 6.000 meters since its first dives in 2013. In total, the group has accumulated 15 exploration points over the past twelve years.
"We are very happy and excited because, in addition to having surpassed 3.000 meters, we have managed to reach a point that, on the ground, is very important to us," explained Eliseo Belzunce, the cave diver leading the expedition. "We have managed to surpass Puig Llorença mountain, where there is less soil on top, which means we will be able to geolocate the point in the future with measuring systems that geolocate the position underwater."
The Riu del Moraig, a unique underwater river of fresh and salt water, requires very specific conditions for exploration. This year, the GEM had already unsuccessfully attempted to explore its depths on two previous occasions, in February and March.
"We need some currents and good visibility, and that's not always easy, because normally when there's visibility there's no current, and conversely, sometimes there's too much current, and then visibility isn't good," Belzunce noted. "It took us a lot of effort to reach this new point because 2024 was a very dry year and impractical due to the low water level in the aquifer. This favorable situation now existed, and we took advantage of it, and everything turned out very well."
In addition to the exploratory work, the expedition had a scientific component. A team from the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Valencia, led by Ferrán Palero and with the collaboration of cave diver Frank Brehier, participated in the expedition. The goal was to advance the study of the subterranean aquatic fauna of the Valencian Community.
The discovery not only expands our understanding of the complex hydrogeological system of the Riu del Moraig, but also underscores the importance of preserving these unique ecosystems, which continue to reveal their secrets underground and underwater.
The uniqueness of the Riu del Moraig and the important work of the GEM
The Riu del Moraig or Riu Blanc is a unique underwater river of fresh and salt water, made up of numerous sinkholes and galleries. Few people have ventured into this unknown cavity. Even today, almost 50 years since the first explorations, the Riu del Moraig remains a mystery, which the Moraig Exploration Group (GEM), made up of divers Eliseo Belzunce, Carles Ramoneda, Joel Borrazas, Guaica Armisén, Jonathan Alcántara, Vicente Gil, Belén Andrés, José María Cortés, Josi Olave, Sasha Karnilovich, Óscar Dolcet, Emanuel Ávila, Albert Pete, and other expert geologists, oceanographers, marine biologists, and others who collaborate in their studies, are slowly trying to shed light on.
Since 2013, this group of cave divers from all over Spain has taken on the challenge of exploring its depths and has managed to reach depths no one had ever reached before. Others attempted this before completing the studies carried out by José María Cortés or the German Bernhard Pack, who died in 1992 during a dive in Moraig. They reached 1.125 meters of this complex cave, and later, a group of English researchers reached 1.350 meters. The GEM is the group that has explored the most depths, almost tripling the number of initial dives and reaching 3.000 meters from the sea entrance and 100 meters deep. In 2023, the GEM and the City Council of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell signed an annual collaboration agreement for the first time.
