TLUANGTEA PUK

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 22/06/2016

A solitary linear rift passage of tectonic origin. The cave has most likely only been accessible in the dry season of 1998-1999 and soon will be lost because it is likely to be filled during the following (few) rainy seasons. SITUATION: At a linear distance of 3.84 km north-east (052°) from the Kawlkulh Inspection Bungalow (N23°36'46: E93°04'57"). The cave site can be reached by driving for a few minutes along the road towards Pawlrang and by trekking for about one to two hours along various overgrown footpaths. The faint to absent jungle trails include a straight descend of some 150 m vertical metres down into a steeply inclined gully with a solid rock floor exposing the local rock strata. CAVE DESCRIPTION: In the dry season of 1998-99, a small vertical cave entrance (0.8 by 1 m) was found to have recently broken through a layer of marly shale in the right (north-eastern) side of a inclined ravine, which follows the dip of the local strata (210°/-25°). A free climbable 4 m descend down gains the approximate centre of a solitary cave passage (120 m long) with more or less rectangular cross-sections (0.5 to 1.2 m wide, 2.5 to 4 m high). This passage descends with an average angle of 8° from the WNW to the ESE and is blocked by quite massive collapses on both ends. Tluangtea Puk is strikingly similar with –>Ralvawng Puk, as both caves are entirely of tectonical origin without any traces of erosion, corrosion, abrasion, solution and secondary calcite deposits. Again, the host rock is sandwiched between marly shales, and the solitary and sub-linear rift passage must have been torn apart when the host rock was bend along with (or parallel to?) the axis of an anticline.