MANIPAY SUBSIDENCE

Jaffna (Jaffna District - LK)
9.716700,80.000000
Grottocenter / carte

Description

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

COOMARASWAMY (1906 in COORAY 1967: 71) narrates an eyewitness's account (note 1) of a subsidence on 20th April 1905 resulting in a closed depression (swallow hole, sinkhole) at the village of Manipay or Manippai and Manippay (note 2): At dawn … the villagers living near the Kerai fields heard a strange sound which was found to have been caused by the collapse of the surface soil over an area of about 10 feet [3 m] in diameter. The pit thus formed contained a pool of saltwater which gradually widened till about 4 p.m. when the pool was about 40 feet [12 m] in diameter; soil from the sides continued to fall in for a time. The depth of the water was about 30 feet [9.15 m], and its surface about one foot [0.30 m] below the surface of the field. Salt water, passing through underground passages, gradually undermined a place where the subsoil was more than usually friable. Similar occurrences are said to have taken place in the past in Jaffna. CEYLON TRAVELLER (1974: 248; 1983: 250) explais that the Jaffna Peninsula is one vast shelf of limestone and has a structure like a sponge where, strangely enough, although it [the Jaffna Peninsula] abounds in curiosities such as the Tidal Well near Pottur and the Sink Hole [note 3] at Manipay, few caverns are actually known. A new one, complete with an underground lakelet, was revealed a few years ago by a subsidence at Keerimalai [note 4], near the Cement Factory.s that the Jaffna Peninsula is one vast shelf of limestone and has a structure like a sponge where, strangely enough, although it [the Jaffna Peninsula] abounds in curiosities such as the Tidal Well near Pottur and the Sink Hole [note 3] at Manipay, few caverns are actually known. A new one, complete with an underground lakelet, was revealed a few years ago by a subsidence at Keerimalai [note 4], near the Cement Factory.

Documents

Bibliography 06/01/2018

History

EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1905.04.20, betwenn 06h00 and 16h00: At dawn a collapse sinkhole at Manipay commenced to cave in (COOMARASWAMY 1906). Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

Caves nearby

Distance (km)NameLength (m)Depth (m)
8.3TELLIPALAI CAVE
10.7TIDAL WELL, Navakkeeri
11.1KEERIMALAI SNAKE CAVE
11.1KEERIMALAI SPRING
12.1TIDAL WELL, Puttur
19.1PERIYA MANDAPAM, Kerudavil
19.2SINNA MANDAPAM
91.5KARUNGALAKUDI HILLS (Caves in)
123.4MEERAN SAHIB (Cave of)