KEERIMALAI SNAKE CAVE

Jaffna (Jaffna District - LK)
9.816700,80.000000
Grottocenter / carte

Description

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

No locally known name has been identified for a NNW facing cave entrance (about 1.5 m high and a metre wide) leading to some 19.5 m of not only surveyed but actually mapped rift cave passages. ETYMOLOGY: The Slovene caver Pavol MITTER (1979a: 156-157) reported the amazing case of a cave with a Slovene cave name in a Tamil speaking country: Hadia jaskyna pri Kirimalai (MITTER 1979a: 156-157) or Hadiu jaskynu pri Kerimalai / Snake Cave by Kirimalai (MITTER 1978: 147). SITUATION: At an unspecified location somewhere in the vicinity of the village of Keerimalai (N09°49': E080°00') on the Jaffna Peninsula. CAVE DESCRIPTION (note 1): The so-called Snake Cave consists of an about 12 m long horizontal cave developed along two faults along 190/65 and 184/85 (without unit but probably rather degree than grade). The entrance, about 1.5 m high and a metre wide, leads to a chamber from where two branches continue The south-eastern one ends some 7.5 m from the entrance in a wall, and the southen one runs some 12 m from the entrance into an impenetrable fissure. The more or less horizontal floor, mostly covered with sand and soil with a few fallen rocks and one larger boulder, is partly covered with a shallow pool in the distal end of the southern branch.n one runs some 12 m from the entrance into an impenetrable fissure. The more or less horizontal floor, mostly covered with sand and soil with a few fallen rocks and one larger boulder, is partly covered with a shallow pool in the distal end of the southern branch.

Documents

Bibliography 06/01/2018
  • Mitter, Pavol 1978, 1979a.

History

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1979: Pavol Mitter and Milan Liska explored and mapped (MITTER 1978, 1979a, 1979b). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Caves nearby

Distance (km)NameLength (m)Depth (m)
0.0KEERIMALAI SPRING
5.2TELLIPALAI CAVE
10.7TIDAL WELL, Navakkeeri
11.1MANIPAY SUBSIDENCE
15.6TIDAL WELL, Puttur
15.8PERIYA MANDAPAM, Kerudavil
15.8SINNA MANDAPAM
80.4KARUNGALAKUDI HILLS (Caves in)
112.4MEERAN SAHIB (Cave of)