Sistema Gleda–Camp des Pou

A coastal cave system in Manacor, Mallorca, with about 14.6 km of passage, 13.7 km of it flooded, linking two collapse entrances. Access is controlled and diving has been limited to permitted research and exploration.

The Gleda–Camp des Pou system is an anchialine cave: a flooded coastal cave in which fresh water floats on denser salt water that reaches it underground from the sea, about 1.7 km away. It opens to the surface through two collapse entrances at opposite ends, the spectacular collapse of the Cova de sa Gleda and the smaller Avenc des Camp des Pou, at about 36 m and 45 m above sea level.

The Societat Espeleològica Balear's 2020 review describes a succession of large chambers and galleries divided into eight sectors, with great volumes, rich speleothems (cave formations) and varied corrosion shapes. The flooded passages are mostly between about 8 and 20 m deep, with a maximum of 24.5 m. Several isolated air chambers have elevated carbon dioxide.

Speleo-divers of the Grup Nord de Mallorca began systematic exploration in 1997; by 2010 they had logged some 400 diving days and more than 2,000 hours underwater, discovered new sectors and connected the Gleda with the Camp des Pou shaft. Work continued under the Societat Espeleològica Balear after a pause caused by permit refusals between late 2015 and 2019.

The cave lies on the Son Josep Nou estate. A metal door closes the passage into the entrance chamber, and a tourism guide states that access has been prohibited since 2014 except for scientific permits.

The cave is developed in the Miocene limestone platform of the Marina de Manacor and is speleogenetically related to the nearby Pirata–Pont–Piqueta system, the third-longest cave in the Balearics.

CTD probe profiles show water at about 19.6 °C with a salinity profile in three layers separated by pycnoclines (density boundaries). In early autumn 2020 the entrance lake's surface salinity was below 2‰, rising to about 10‰ at 7 m and 16‰ near 11 m, then sharply to 30‰ and slowly to about 37‰ at depth. The pycnocline level shifts by about 0.8 m between summer and winter. Heavy rain sends torrents and sediment into the entrance chamber.

One of the longest underwater caves in the Balearic Islands and a research site for cave mineralogy, water chemistry and, since 2019, underwater archaeology.

Layered fresh and salt water with haloclines; heavy rain can wash large amounts of sediment into the entrance chamber, as recorded in 1990 and 2001.

نطاقات اعتيادية من مصادر منشورة، لا ظروف آنية.

Two currently accessible entrances (Cova de sa Gleda and Avenc des Camp des Pou), plus at least two more that were filled in over past centuries. Neither is open for recreational diving.