Kempty Falls Cave

General description

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 06/01/2018

An east-facing, vaulted cave entrance (up to 8 m wide and high) gives access to a solitary, mostly daylight-lit and funnel-shaped cave passage (13 m long at a vertical range of +9.7 m) in conglomerate (compare the caves at –>Lakha Mandal and –>Pudia Bend), which arrives steeply descending from a rift controlled by a gravitational disturbance that runs parallel to the escarpment (and road lined with parked cars) in front of the cave. In the case of Kempty Falls Cave development is clearly controlled by processes of piping combined with gravitational mass wasting. CAVE DESCRIPTION: One has to climb up 4 m across loose conglomerate to reach the entrance to the cave in conglomerate. The southern wall, inclined by about 040°/-55°, is coated with 3 to 8 cm thick, apparently decomposing flowstone cover giving the impression of being the only cause keeping the instable rock in place. A few tiny and dry calcite curtains (bacon, flag, shawl speleothems) occur on the ceiling. One can climb up 6 m –beware of loose, falling rocks– in the north-western corner of the entrance area to gain a terminal rift that closes down some 5 m in (note 3). CAVE LIFE: Scherzer (1991.11 Mss) noticed a lone bat (Chiroptera) that did not refrain from hanging around in spite of an inquisitive intruder who intentionally clambered around and inadvertently triggered loose rocks to shoot down (note 4).