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A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word cave can refer to smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos, that extend a relatively short distance into the rock and they are called exogene caves. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves.
Mammoth Cave National Park is a national park in south-central Kentucky, encompassing portions of Mammoth Cave, the longest cave system known in the world. The park's 52,830 acres (21,380 ha) are located primarily in Edmonson County, with small areas extending eastward into Hart and Barren counties. The Green River runs through the park, with a tributary called the Nolin River feeding into the Green just inside the park.
Meghalaya is a state in northeast India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and Jaintia Hills and (b) the Garo Hills. The population of Meghalaya as of 2014 is estimated to be 3,211,474. Meghalaya covers an area of approximately 22,429 square kilometres, with a length-to-breadth ratio of about 3:1.
At 150.4 miles (242.0 km), Lechuguilla Cave is the eighth-longest explored cave in the world and the second deepest in the continental United States. It is most famous for its unusual geology, rare formations, and pristine condition.
The Garo Hills are part of the Garo-Khasi range in Meghalaya, India. They are inhabited by the Garo people. It is one of the wettest places in the world. The range is part of the Meghalaya subtropical forests ecoregion.
Dos Ojos is part of a flooded cave system located north of Tulum, on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The exploration of Dos Ojos began in 1987 and still continues. The surveyed extent of the cave system is 82 kilometers (51 mi) and there are 28 known sinkhole entrances, which are locally called cenotes. In January 2018, a connection was found between Sistema Dos Ojos and Sistema Sac Actun. The smaller Dos Ojos became a part of Sac Actun, making the Sistema Sac Actun the longest known underwater cave system in the world.
Krem Liat Prah is the longest natural cave in South Asia.
Hellhole is a large and deep pit cave in Germany Valley of eastern West Virginia. It is the seventh longest cave in the United States and is home to almost half of the world's population of Virginia big-eared bats. At 737 feet (225 m), Hellhole is the deepest of several caves in the Valley.
Schistura sijuensis is a troglobitic species of stone loach endemic to India.
Cave research, encompassing the study of speleology and biospeleology, is still in its infancy in India. Although there are thousands of caves in India, research expeditions occur in few states. The Siju Cave in Meghalaya is the first limelighted natural cave from India. Several studies were carried out in this cave in the early 20th century. The Kotumsar Cave in Central India is one of the most explored caves of India, and biologists have classified many types of cavernicoles, i.e. trogloxenes, troglophiles and troglobites, from this cave.
Wroughton's free-tailed bat is a free-tailed bat formerly considered to be confined to the Western Ghats area of India, though it has also recently been discovered in northeast India and in a remote part of Cambodia. It is classified as a Data Deficient species as little is known about their habitat, ecology, or foraging range.
The Belum Caves, located in Nandyala district of Andhra Pradesh's Rayalaseema region, is the second largest cave system on the Indian subcontinent, known for its speleothems, such as stalactite and stalagmite formations. The Belum Caves have long passages, galleries, spacious caverns with fresh water and siphons. This cave system was formed over the course of tens of thousands of years by the constant flow of underground water from the now-disappeared river Chitravathi. The cave system reaches its deepest point at the point known as Pataalaganga. Belum Caves have a length of 3,229 m (10,593.8 ft), making them the second largest caves on the Indian Subcontinent after the Krem Liat Prah caves in Meghalaya. It is one of the centrally protected Monuments of National Importance.
Deer Cave, located near Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, is a show cave attraction of Gunung Mulu National Park. It was surveyed in 1961 by G. E. Wilford of the British Borneo Geological Survey, who predicted that Mulu would yield many more caves in the future. The cave, which is also known as Gua Payau or Gua Rusa by the local Penan and Berawan people, is said to have received its name because of the deer that go there to lick salt-bearing rocks and shelter themselves.
Schistura papulifera is a critically endangered species of ray-finned fish, a troblobitic stone loach, in the genus Schistura endemic to the state of Meghalaya in India. It is currently known to be restricted to the Krem Synrang Pamiang cave system near the Jaintia Hills, where it is threatened by limestone extraction. This species lives in pools of standing water within the cave system preferring these to the streams of flowing water, being most numerous in the largest and deepest pools. This may be because the larger pools offer a more stable environment for the fish. The specific name is a compound of the Latin papula meaning "a small tumour" and fera meaning "to bear", referring to the growths around the lower half this species head.
The Chiquibul Cave System is one of the largest and best-known cave systems in Central America. It consists of four distinct caves along the course of the Chiquibul River; Actun Kabal, Actun Tun Kul (Tunkul) and Cebada Cave in Belize, and Xibalba in Guatemala, as well as several other smaller associated caves. Included within the cave system are two of the largest caverns in the world.
Panchapandava Cave Temple is a monument at Mahabalipuram, on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, in the Kancheepuram district of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The mandapa is part of the Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram. It is the largest cave temple in Mahabalipuram. It is an example of Indian rock-cut architecture dating from the late 7th century. The temple is one of the finest testimonial to the ancient Vishwakarma Sthapathis, of rock-cut cave architecture, out of many such caves also called mandapas. Part of the Group of Monuments at Mahabalipuram, the temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as inscribed in 1984 under criteria i, ii, iii and iv.
The Caves of Meghalaya comprise a large number of caves in the Jaintia, Khasi Hills, and Garo Hills districts in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and are amongst the longest caves in the world. Of the ten longest and deepest caves in India, the first nine are in Meghalaya, while the tenth is in Mizoram. The longest is Krem Liat Prah in the Jaintia Hills, which is 30,957 m (101,600 ft) long. The word "Krem" means cave in the local Khasi language.
Cave diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. The equipment used varies depending on the circumstances, and ranges from breath hold to surface supplied, but almost all cave diving is done using scuba equipment, often in specialised configurations with redundancies such as sidemount or backmounted twinset. Recreational cave diving is generally considered to be a type of technical diving due to the lack of a free surface during large parts of the dive, and often involves planned decompression stops. A distinction is made by recreational diver training agencies between cave diving and cavern diving, where cavern diving is deemed to be diving in those parts of a cave where the exit to open water can be seen by natural light. An arbitrary distance limit to the open water surface may also be specified. Despite the risks, water-filled caves attract scuba divers, cavers, and speleologists due to their often unexplored nature, and present divers with a technical diving challenge.
Mawmluh Cave is a maze cave in the state of Meghalaya in northeast India. At 7.2 km in length, it is the fourth longest cave in the Indian subcontinent. The cave, which has several entrances, has formed at the junction between an early Eocene dolomite and a sandstone formation. It contains numerous stalactites, stalagmites, columns and drapes, collectively termed speleothems.
Neolissochilus pnar is a species of subterranean cyprinid in the genus Neolissochilus. It is the largest known subterranean fish, a title formerly held by the blind cave eel.
References
- ↑ "Caves of Meghalaya". Govt. of Meghalaya.
- ↑ "Schistura papulifera". IUCN. Retrieved 18 September 2014.