Ninga Niamagingiri
-18.374722,34.972778
Description
Dimba village, Chidanga zone, Cheringoma district, Sofala province. 34°58'22"B: 18°22'29' N (GPS WGS84), ca. 230 m asl. Surveyed on 27 Aug. 1998 by Herbert Daniel Gebauer, Adriano Germano and Michael Laumanns (BCRA-Grade 4b). Length: 165 m. Vertical range: -7 m. The cave is identical with „Caverna Cheringoma no.15" (Vachamuteco 1982) and is situated a short distance from the road from Inhaminga to Chite. Ninga Niamagingiri is the longest cave surveyed in the area north of Inhaminga. Two roof collapses of 4 and 6 m depth (steel rope ladder), a 6 m deep pothole and a crawl entrance in a collapse doline gives access to a horizontal SW - NE running rift passage intersected by a tight crawl. The rift passage has dimensions of 6,5 x 5 m in the NE extension. An approximately 50 m long side branch leads to the W. Some pottery was found in the cave near the southern pothole entrance representing the only place in all the caves surveyed in the Cheringoma plateau with visible human artefacts. Ninga Niamagingiri shows traces of exploited guano. Vachamuteco (1982) reported a cave with guano, 25 m long, 4,5 m wide, housing about 2,000 bats. Today a small bat population can be found in a side chamber of the western passage. The cave does not contain calcite speleothemes.
Fossil cave in the Eocene limestone of the Cheringoma formation, constituted with galleries with campaniform section on predominantly fractures N 60° and N 115°. The last ones are also connected through conduits on bedding plains. Especially on the walls and on the ceiling meander niches of corrosion and ceiling channels are present. Fig. 24 shows the following structural directions of karstification: 1) N 55-60° and N 115° directions of prevailing karstification with 74.1 % and 18%; 2) N 130° and N 160° secondary directions of karstification with 5% and 2.9 %.
The cave presents a big deposit of guano and a big colony of bats (Rhinolophidae). On the guano many larves of Trichoptera, many Blattidae and different species of Coleoptera were present. Under the pebbles Isopoda and small Blattidae without pigment were present, while on the walls Orthoptera Raphidophoridae and Arachnida Amblypygi were found.
Documents
Ninga Niamagingiri 15/11/2015
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.4 | Ninga rego Swere | 101 | 10 |
| 0.7 | Ninga Macie [Cementary Cave] | 5 | 5 |
| 0.8 | Tombo Apale Cave 4 | 47 | 4 |
| 1.0 | Ninga Tombo Apale | 41 | 6 |
| 1.0 | Tombo Apale Cave 3 | 18 | 6 |
| 1.3 | Tombo Apale Cave 2 | 23 | 4 |
| 5.6 | Larger Umbira Cave | 106 | 8 |
| 5.8 | Smaller Umbira Cave | ||
| 16.6 | Ninga Manguenje | 188 | 10 |