TALEM CAVE (Crookshank 1963)
18.750000,81.616700
Description
Sort of a relatively »quite large cave« (unidentified size perhaps fist sized? pumpkin sized? larger?), which is formed in fine grained greenstone (a metamorphosed basalt) and contains »rounded masses of quartz« (CROOKSHANK, H 1963: 35-36). ETYMOLOGY: No autochthonous, indigenous or locally known name has been identified for this »quite large cave« north of the village of Talem. SITUATION: CROOKSHANK, H (1963) came upon this »quite large cave« north of the village of Talem (N18°45': E081°37') and thus in an area where AMS sheet NE44-07 Malakanagiri (U502 series, 1963 edition) shows a hillock culminating at 2810 feet (856 m asl) which is possibly identical with the height .879 (metres) shown in the top-right corner of quadrangle G3 in the India Road Atlas (Eicher Goodearth 2006: 95). The village of Talem lies about 40 km (±5 km) along the road from the western entrance to the Kangerghati National Park (note 1) approximately south-west and past Karka (N18°51': E081°37') towards Mailawada (N18°43': E081°28' WGS84 ±3 km), Koriras (N18°38': E081°24') and Kuakonda (N18°42': E081°28') where the latter (meaning "cave hill" ?) lies about 30 or 40 km along the road approximately south-east from Dantewara (N18°54': E081°21'), the headquarters of a district of the same name. GEOLOGY: »Fine grained greenstones cap a number of hills and ridges in the west of the Tulsi Dongar region. …In the field these greenstones are dark and massive with no marked bedding planes. The base of the greenstones is irregular, but tends to be horizontal. The irregularity suggests that they have been folded or faulted subsequent to their extrusion. The horizontal trend probably indicates that the folding has not been very severe. The long ridges in which they occur are probably the synclinal axes of the folds. The remainder of the original folds has probably been entirely removed by denudation. The base of the greenstone is often very siliceous and contains in many places abundant spherical masses of quartz closely resembling in shape the amygdules of an ordinary basalt. Similar quartz-filled cavities are locally found throughout the main mass of the greenstone. Cavities lined with quartz also occur. Most of these are of the size of a normal amygdule, but in one place north of Talem quite a large cave was seen in the greenstone which probably had originated in the same way as the smaller cavities. The fine grained nature of these greenstones, their occurrence as cappings on the top of hills, and the presence in them both of open cavities and of rounded masses of quartz indistinguishable in shape from ordinary amygdules all point to their being metamorphosed basalts. …The thickness of these ancient basalt flows is often as much as 300 feet [90 m]« (CROOKSHANK, H 1963: 35-36).
NOTE 1: The road junction in front of Kangerghati National Park is shown in the India Road Atlas (Eicher Goodearth 2006) map 95 H2 at a travelling distance of 27 km approximately SSW from Jagdalpur (N19°04': E082°02') on the road via Sosanpal (India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth 2006: 95 H2) or Sosonpal (N19°02': E081°55' nima.mil/geonames, accessed 16.11.2003) and Mottugudiam (N18°18': E081°34' on India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth 2006: 95 G4) to Motu (N17°50': E081°24' on India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth 2006: 95 G5).
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 32.7 | DANTESHWARI, Dantewara | ||
| 34.7 | CHITRAKOT CAVES (Cooper 1983) | ||
| 34.7 | MAERAR PAKNA CAVE 1 | ||
| 34.7 | DHODRA KONTA SHELTER 1 | ||
| 34.7 | JAM JARIA CAVE | ||
| 34.7 | MAERAR PAKNA CAVE 2 | ||
| 34.7 | MAERAR PAKNA CAVE 3 | ||
| 34.7 | MAERAR PAKNA CAVE 4 | ||
| 34.7 | MAERAR PAKNA SHELTERS |