ИСТИНА

We present the results of the latest successful tracer tests in the southern part of Khipsta massif and their analysis. This part of the massif is drained by well-studied Snezhnaya cave system. The tests were carried out in the winter of 2009-2010, both in normal and in high water level. We used an uranine as a fluorescent dye, and bacterial cells Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus licheniformis as a new original absorber. Our test results confirm in general the data of the previous experiments. However, we found several new springs of the output of underground water. Measured karst water velocity has appeared extremely high (7-11 km/day or 290-460 m/h), in 3-4 times larger, than the velocity, which has been obtained in the previous tests. We also present a brief survey of other successful and not successful tracer tests in Khipsta massif which were carried out in 1973-2011. We conclude that the direction of the karst water streams in the south part of Khipsta massif is complex and ambiguous. There are several directions of water streams movement. Number of directions of the underground water streams increases during a high water level time.