Pluragrotta

The damming of lake Kallvatnet in the mid-1960s greatly reduced water flow in the partially subterranean Plura river, making diving possible in the cave.

[1] In 1987 a group of ten Norwegian divers started to explore the Pluragrotta's underwater cave system.

[2] Most of the divers were working as Fire brigade-officers in Oslo brannvesen and they did the exploration on their own time without sponsors.

[2] Their work became known when NRK in 1997 aired a program about it in the series Ut i naturen [no] (Out into the Nature) when seven members of Norsk teknisk dykkekrets presented the Pluragrotta on TV.

[2][8] They had the cooperation of S. E. Lauritzen at the University of Bergen who at the time was the only one in Norway doing professional research on the caves.

Finnish explorers were the first to discover a connection between the two known entrances: Pluragrotta, and the nearby dry cave Steinugleflåget, in September 2013.

[10] The cave system, with its marble formations, lies beneath the Scandinavian Mountains.

[14] 69 persons participated and the couple to achieve the record was Jani Santala (Finland) and Ina Trælnes (Norway).

In August 1988, a diver exploring the cave tore the right leg of his diving suit on a sharp rock.

Norwegian authorities called on an international team, which included British divers Richard Stanton, John Volanthen and Jason Mallinson, to recover the bodies.