RONG UMSOH - SOH PANG BNIAT (Krem)
25.256100,91.718600
Description
Altogether seven cave entrances are known to give access to an inexplicable complex of cave passages in a catchment area feeding a north-south draining stream cave with joint-guided inlets. The cave entrance to Krem Rong Umsoh itself, the "Cave of the Fruit / Orange Coloured Stream" (note 1), lies at the bottom of the 50 m deep doline (note 2) –>Lum Lawbah Doline 2 and is connected underground in one way or another -- but nobody knows how -- to the caves Krem –>Soh Pang Bniat nos. 1 to 4 and Krem –>Lumshlan 1 and 2. CAVE DESCRIPTION: »A short distance beyond the roomy stream sink entrance led to a 5 m ladder pitch … We surveyed in from the entrance past a couple of inlets and followed a fine stream passage for 350 metres to a bat guano infested pool which we assume sumps as the scores of bats flying round above it (in a low passage mostly occupied by ourselves!) seemed not to be able to escape. Some actually dropped into the pool amongst their dead and decomposing relatives floating in the frothy scum. The odour of guano added to the general unpleasantness of this area and as it was getting late this was an ideal spot to stop for the day. We left a couple of oxbows, another good sized inlet streamway and an extensive, very roomy fossil series [note 3] unsurveyed … There were a few fine formations [speleothems], though small, throughout the system, and some nice calcite floors. Because of the orange mud which rapidly coloured the stream, we christened the cave Krem Rong Umsoh (Orange River Cave). The grey, red and orange colours of the rock added to its attractiveness« (Jarratt 1998.02.16 Mss: Cave Log 1998: 16/2/98). PROSPECTS: Without any doubt, the whole lot of cave passages deserves surveying by cavers who know what they are doing (note 4). Even under the thrall of stupefying liquids it had been discovered that there remained »… an extensive, bat infested upper level [remained] unmapped due to lack of time« (JARRATT 1998: 53). CAVE LIFE: JARRATT (1998: 53) drew the attention of arthropods and small mammals to the existence of visitable spiders (Araneae: conf. Arachnidae) and bats (Chiroptera) at home in Krem Rong Umso - Soh Pang Bniat.
NOTE 1: When pyrite (FeS) occurring in underground coal deposits comes into contact with air (oxygen) and water (for example on occasion of being worked by coal miners), it decomposes into sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and iron oxides (hydro-oxides, etc). While the iron oxides cause bright orange coloured slurries and sediments (ochre, rust), the sulphuric acid reduces pH (makes water acidic) and turns limestone into gypsum. NOTE 2 ( to be completed ): E1 = N25°15'22": E091°43'07" (±50 m, WGS84, Gebauer H D 1998.02.10): circa 1250 m asl = Krem Rong Umsoh. E2 = N25°15'22.5": E091°43'06.8" (cave survey based on E1) = Krem Rong Umsoh upper entrance. E3 = Krem Lumshlan. E4 = Krem Lumshlan 2. NOTE 3: Since the »fossil series« (Jarratt 1998.02.16 Mss: Cave Log 1998: 16/2/98) is »roomy« it seems to be rather a series of relic cave passages, abandoned by flowing water, than a cave passage replaced by plutonic sedimentary rock. A fossil cave is an underground cavity that formed when a carbonate succession was undergoing karstification but subsequently was buried and infilled by neptunian deposits: Younger sediment or sedimentary rock that infills pre-existing cavities, such as grikes, dolines or cave passages, in older rocks (LOWE & WALTHAM 1995: 25). A relic cave is an abandoned, inactive cave segment, left when the water that formed it is diverted elsewhere, normally due to rejuvenation, continuing cave development and increasing karstic maturity. Relic phreatic passage segments are abandoned in the vadose zone, where they may remain dry, retaining a typical phreatic morphology, or be invaded and modified to a keyhole profile by new streams (LOWE & WALTHAM 1995: 30). NOTE 4: »After leaving a couple of bottles of beer to cool in the stream we followed the inlet stream, surveying as we went. It was soon obvious to Tom that this was the streamway we had surveyed yesterday and I quickly confirmed that it also had been surveyed by myself and Tom last year« (Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt 1999 Cave Log, vol. 7, entry for 24th February 1999).
Documents
Bibliography 14/05/2016History
EXPLORATION HISTORY: 1889: LATOUCHE (1889) had noticed in the west-north-west of the G.T.S. (Great Trigonometrical Survey) station of »Ranzanobo« (also: Rangsanobo, probably for: Rynsan U Bah) on (the hill) Lum Lawbah a »swallow hole« and this closed depression may be the same as the doline descending down to the seasonal sinkhole and perennial cave entrance. 1998.02.10: H. Daniel Gebauer, Andrew "Andy" Peter Tyler and Valery Lalvula found the entrance to Krem Rong Umsoh. 1998.02.14: H. Daniel Gebauer and Yvo Weidmann reconnoitered Krem Rong Umsoh. 1998.02.16: Boycott, Antony 'Tony', Anthony 'Tony' Jarratt, Susanne Anette Becher and Andrew 'Andy' Tyler measured some 400 m of distances in unidentified parts of Krem Rong Umsoh. 1998.03.13: Raphael Warjri, the first explorer from Meghalaya sketching a cave plan, drew 128.82 m of crawlway passage in Krem Soh Pang Bniat, assisted by Brian D. Kharpran Daly, H. Daniel Gebauer, Jona Diengdoh, Badamut Hoojun, Refulgent Kharnaior and Babha Kupar ‘Dale’ Mawlong. 1999.02: Boycott, Antony 'Tony', Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt and friends visited, entered and measured unknown passages leading to other entrances, e.g. Krem –>Soh Pang Bniat, and sort of added 1298.08 m to the so-called "survey" resulting in an irreparable total of 1801.38 m. 2000.03.03 and 06 (Anthony 'Tony' R. Jarratt, Mss Meghalaya cave log 2000): Simon J. Brooks, Mark W. Brown, Tom Chapman, Kirsten McCullough, Lindsay B. Diengdoh, Anthony 'Tony' R Jarratt, Katharina "Kate" Janossy, Fraser Simpson and A.P. Tyler procured another 963.5 m (total: 2746.48 m) of useless survey data. BROOKS (2000b: 5) was led to believe that »Krem Rong Umsoh was extended from 1.8 km to 2.8 km in length« but the survey still makes no sense.
Caves nearby
| Distance (km) | Name | Length (m) | Depth (m) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.2 | LUMSHLAN (Krem) | ||
| 0.2 | LUMSHLAN 2 (Krem) | ||
| 0.2 | SOH PANG BNIAT (Krem) | ||
| 0.3 | LUM LAWBAH: Doline 4 (aa -) | ||
| 0.4 | SOH PANG BNIAT 2 (Krem) | ||
| 0.4 | SOH PANG BNIAT 3 (Krem) | ||
| 0.4 | SOH PANG BNIAT 4 (Krem) | ||
| 0.4 | AA CAVE, Sohra (Chapman 2000) | ||
| 0.4 | LUM LAWBAH: Doline (aa -) |