TOOMOO CRATER

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Not exactly a crater but a closed depression (doline, pothole, cave) with serrated lips (fluted walls, karren) reports FOSTER (1873: 29th July 1868) from opposite of a place called Toomoo (note 1): Just above here on the other side of the valley is a very perfect crater (of course extinct) for there are now no volcanoes in the Himalayas. Its lips are rugged and serrated like the teeth of a saw, and form a very perfect circle I cannot tell the depth of the basin, but on the further side I can see that the edge rises perpendicularly to a considerable height, and at the bottom of it I just got a glimpse of a steeply sloping floor. On its exterior are deep grooves containing strong blocks, which at this distance appear to show by contrast of colour [sandstone?] their igneous origin, but I cannot speak positively on this point. IDENTITY: Compare: –>Haramukh sinkholes and swallets. SITUATION: This pothole appears to lie somewhere on the south flanks of Haramukh mountain (N34°24': E074°55$$WGS84). APPROACH: Foster reached Toomoo by walking estimated 6 miles (about 10 km) in an unspecified direction from Kungan (Kangan, N34°16': E074°55' WGS84), which itself lies 9 miles (14.5 km) on foot from Gunderbal [note 2], at the opening of the Scind valley [Sindh River] to a place called Soorapra, a small village around which stand several enormous hills, half obscured by clouds, for it is a thoroughly wet day [30th July 1868], drizzling rain having fallen ever since my arrival. It is very cool and pleasant, but I have got up too far and am now in the rainy region, so to-morrow I shall retrace my steps, three or four marches would take me over the Himalayas into Ladâk [Ladakh]. This would be an interesting trip, but there still remains much for me to see in Kashmir, and I have not time to do both. Passed another, but smaller and less perfect crater, which is the –>Soorapra Crater.$WGS84). APPROACH: Foster reached Toomoo by walking estimated 6 miles (about 10 km) in an unspecified direction from Kungan (Kangan, N34°16': E074°55' WGS84), which itself lies 9 miles (14.5 km) on foot from Gunderbal [note 2], at the opening of the Scind valley [Sindh River] to a place called Soorapra, a small village around which stand several enormous hills, half obscured by clouds, for it is a thoroughly wet day [30th July 1868], drizzling rain having fallen ever since my arrival. It is very cool and pleasant, but I have got up too far and am now in the rainy region, so to-morrow I shall retrace my steps, three or four marches would take me over the Himalayas into Ladâk [Ladakh]. This would be an interesting trip, but there still remains much for me to see in Kashmir, and I have not time to do both. Passed another, but smaller and less perfect crater, which is the –>Soorapra Crater.