Tham Susa [MH0059]
19.471219,98.128469
Location
The Susa Waterfall can be reached by the recently upgrade tracked from Ban Mae Suriya which ends at 47Q 408030 2153725 on the opposite bank to where the Susa stream tumbles over a spectacular 300 m wide travertine delta into the Nam Khong river. A footbridge crosses the river and then the cave entrance is at the foot of the cliff, above the tufa falls, 750 m from the Nam Khlong. This resurgence cave is the only known rising for the extensive karst plateau between the Nam Lang river and the Mae Nam Pai.
Description
Tham Susa has two entrances which are close together and above the resurgence. The lower entrance drops 3 m to a mud floored passage which leads to a 4 m mud slope down to the stream, 15 m upstream of the final sump before the resurgence while the upper entrance opens into a large chamber that has prehistoric artifacts on the floor. This leads to another chamber with massive speleothems and possible access to a high level passage. At the back of both chambers mud slopes drop down to the stream. The stream passage is 5 to 7 m wide and the walls, slopes, banks and formations are mud coated. The stream is 0.5 to 2 m wide and there is a strong current. After 100 m there is a side passage to the south at the top of a mud bank. This passage is large and dry, 8 to 10 m high and 20 m wide, and has been followed for 150 m, but the smaller passages beyond have not been investigated. There is a second high level passage to the south around 300 m from the entrance which leads to a large, high chamber 20 to 30 m in diameter with a floor covered with fallen, decaying formations which lead down a dry flowstone bank back to the stream. Other high level passages have been seen along the stream passage, but not investigated. The river passage can be followed for 740 m from the entrance to the First Waterfall. This waterfall is 4 m high and can be free-climbed. Immediately above the First Waterfall there is a plunge pool, 10 m across, which is at the bottom of the 5 m high Second Waterfall. The Second Waterfall was the end of exploration until the 1990 Australian expedition when several days were spent engineering a bamboo platform across the plunge pool which allowed a bamboo maypole to be hoisted and the waterfall was scaled. There have only been two trips to the stream passage above the waterfalls. The first trip surveyed 700 m of passage while the second, a few days later, pushed on up the stream passage. After approximately 1,200 m from the waterfalls the stream emerges from an underwater hole and a further couple of hundred metres of dry passage exploration ended at a large, unstable boulder choke.
Topographie
The cave was surveyed by the Australians in 1985 (to the waterfalls) and 1990 (above the waterfalls). The location of the survey notes is unknown. Published surveys:- DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1985) - ASF Grade 4.3 BOLAND, KEN (1990a) BOLAND, KEN (1992a) - ASF Grade 4.3 ELLIS, MARTIN (2009) - based in survey in BOLAND, KEN (1990)
Fauna
Cryptotora thamicola (Kottelat, 1988) (Chordata, Actinopterygii, Cypriniformes, Balitoridae) û type locality (Kottelat 1988)
Documents
[Topo] Tham Susa 12/05/2019Bibliography 08/05/2020
- +Anon. (1997b) "Forward Program: Mini Expedition to North West Thailand" Speleo Spiel No. 303 July-August 1997 p3 +Anon. (2011b) "Baseline study for ecotourism development in Mae Hong Son" Final mission report by Thailand Community Based Tourism Institute (CBT-I) for the United Nations Joint Program on Integrated Highland Livelihood Development in Mae Hong Son, Output 1.3: Ecotourism. June 2011. 175p ***Anon. (2018l) "New walking cavefish study explores origins of quadrapedal walking" New Jersey Institute of Technology press release 19 December 2018 +BOLAND, KEN (1990a) "Thailand 1990 Part I" Nargun Vol. 23 No. 2 pp18-20 +BOLAND, KEN (1990b) "Thailand 1990 - Part II" Nargun Vol. 23 No. 5 pp43-46 +Boland, Ken (1992a) "Caving in Thailand" Australian Caver No. 132 pp7-9 +BOLAND, KEN (1992b) "The Exploration of Tham Susa, Nam Khong Basin, NW Thailand" International Caver No. 3 pp36-40 +BOLAND, KEN (1992c) "NW Thailand - The Story So Far" International Caver No. 5 pp30-35 +BOROWSKY, RICHARD (2000) "Thailand 2001 - Expedition Prospectus" www.nyu.edu/fas/cave/ExpeditionPlan.pdf +BOROWSKY, RICHARD; VIDTHAYANON, CHAVALIT (2001) "Nucleotide Diversity in Populations of Balitorid Cave Fishes in Thailand" Molecular Ecology Vol. 10 No. 12 pp2799-2805 +BRANCELJ, ANTON; BOONYANUSITH, CHAICHAT; WATIROYRAM, SANTI; SANOAMUANG, LA-ORSRI (2013) "The groundwater-dwelling fauna of South East Asiaö Journal of Limnology, Vol. 72 Supplement 2 pp327-344 +COGGAN, MARJORIE; DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT; ANDERSON, NEIL (EDS.) (1999) "Tham Sanuk: The Lighter Side Of Caving In Thailand" Canberra, 76pp +DILOKWANICH, S.; ET AL. (2000) "An Exploration and Database System of the Caves, Mae Hong Son Province" 6 Vols. Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Bangkok - STD717 +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1985) "Further Under The Golden Triangle" Australian Caver No. 108 pp2-5 +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1985) "Karst and Caves of the Nam Lang - Nam Khong Region, North Thailand" Helictite Vol. 23 No. 1 pp3-22 +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT (1995) "The Caves of Thailand" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-9-9 +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT; BRUSH, JOHN B. (ED.) (1986) "Caves of North-west Thailand: Report of the Australian Speleological Expeditions 1983-1986" Speleological Research Council, Sydney ISBN 0-9589253-2-1 62pp +DUNKLEY, JOHN ROBERT; GREENFIELD, PAUL (1983) "Under the Golden Triangle: Caving in North Thailand" Australian Speleological Federation Newsletter No. 102 pp4-6 +ELLIS, MARTIN (2009) ôThailandÆs Top Twentyö Shepton Mallet Caving Club Journal Series 12 No. 4 pp140-232 +Ellis, Martin (2015c) "Thailand's Longest and Deepest Caves: A Caving Guide" Martin Ellis, Shepton Mallet ISBN 978-1-326-43857-9 84pp +Ellis, Martin; Laumanns, Michael (2017) "Thailand" in Laumanns, Michael; Price, Liz (eds.) (2017) "Atlas of the Great Caves and Karst of Southeast Asia: Part 2 Myanmar - Vietnam" second edition, Berliner Hohlenkundliche Berichte Band 67 pp241-292 +Flammang, Brooke E.; Suvarnaraksha, Apinun; Markiewicz, Julie; Soares, Daphne (2016) "Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish" Scientific Reports Vol. 6 Article 23711 +FOAKES, MARTIN (1998) "Caving in North-West Thailand" International Caver No. 22 pp32-35 +Kiernan, Kevin (1988e) "Geomorphology of a tropical intermontane basin in the Sino-Burman Ranges" 26th International Geographical Congress 1988, International Geological Union, Sydney pp1-24 +Kiernan, Kevin (1991a) "Geomorphological evidence for Quarternary climatic change in the Lower Sino-Burman Ranges" Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography Vol. 12 No. 2 pp112-123 +Kiernan, Kevin (1991b) "Tropical mountain geomorphology and landscape evolution in North-west Thailand" Zeitschrift f³r Geomorphologie N.F. Vol. 35 No. 2 pp187-206 +Kiernan, Kevin; Spies, John; Dunkley, John Robert (1988) "Prehistoric occupation and burial sites in the mountains of the Nam Khlong area, Mae Hong Son Province, Northwestern Thailand" Australian Archaeology No. 27 pp24-44 +KOTTELAT, MAURICE (1988) "Two Species of Cavefishes from Northern Thailand in the Genera Nemacheilus and Homaloptera (Osteichthyes : Homalopteridae)" Records of the Australian Museum Vol. 40 No. 3-4 pp225-230 ***Kottelat, Maurice (2012) "Conspectus cobitidum: An inventory of the loaches of the World (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Cobitoidei)" The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement No. 26 199pp +Sandjideh, Kian (1996) "Read on the net" SFBC Newsletter Vol. 39 No. 9 September 1996, San Francisco Bay Chapter, National Speleological Society, p4 +SIDISUNTHORN, PINDAR; GARDNER, SIMON; SMART, DEAN (2006) "Caves of Northern Thailand" River Books, Thailand, ISBN 9749863135 +SPIES, JOHN (1994) "The Palaces of Darkness" Action Asia (Hong Kong) Vol.3 No.4 pp116-126 +SPIES, JOHN (2000) "Suggestions for Cave Management" in "An Exploration and Database System of Caves: Mae Hong Son Province" Vol. 6. Faculty of Environment and Resource Studies, Mahidol University, Bangkok +SPIES, JOHN (2005) "Latest News And Up Coming Events At And Around The Cave Lodge" November 2005 www.cavelodge.com/news.htm +TRAJANO, ELEONORA; MUGUE, NIKOLAI; KREJCA, JEAN; VIDTHAYANON, CHAVALIT; SMART, DEAN; BOROWSKY RICHARD (2002) "Habitat, Distribution, Ecology And Behaviour Of Cave Balitorids From Thailand (Teleostei: Cypriniformes)" Icthyological Exploration of Freshwaters Vol. 13 No. 2 pp169-184 +Vidthayanon, Chavalit (2011) "Cryptotora thamicola" IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2 www.iucnredlist.org [accessed May 2014] +Weare, Robin (2014) "Mud maps and caves in Thailand" presentation at Hidden Earth 2014
History
1984 -Tham Susa was first visit by the 1984 Australian expeditions 1985 - surveyed as far as the waterfall by Australian expedition. 1990 - The waterfall was scaled by the 1990 Australian expedition and although a rope was left on the Second Waterfall a lot of effort will be needed to visit the upper streamway again. 2019-02-26 J. Brush, M. Coggan, N. Anderson
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Cave MH0060 - MH0060 | ||
| 0.2 | Cave MH0157 - MH0157 | ||
| 2.3 | Tham Sua - Tham Lom - MH0061 | 3075 | 40 |
| 2.5 | Coffin Cave MH214 - MH0214 | 50 | 0 |
| 3.0 | Cave MH0219 - MH0219 | 10 | 10 |
| 3.2 | Tham Huai Kut Pba Teung - MH0220 | 278 | 108 |
| 3.2 | Cave MH0113 - MH0113 | 200 | |
| 3.3 | Cave MH0136 - MH0136 | 30 | 0 |
| 4.9 | Tham Nam Lang - MH0057 | 8550 | 110 |