Caves in Basalts in Krông Nô Area, Đắk Nông Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Caves have always been creating a mysterious and fascinating beauty for geoheritages, natural heritages, as well as geoparks. Caves in sedimentary rocks, especially in karst in Vietnam are diverse, often breaking new records in length, depth and distribution region wide and world wide. Meanwhile, caves in basaltic rocks in Vietnam were discovered in 2007 in the area of Trinh Nữ waterfall, Krông Nô District, Đắk Nông province. The Trinh Nữ waterfall area is an attractive heritage complex on both natural and socio-cultural aspects. It comprises 3 waterfalls and the famous associated scenery in the Central Highlands, the craters, columnar basalts, resurgences of underground springs, primary forests, national historic cultural monuments, etc. Caves here are quite numerous and usually extend in certain direction. Classified by depth and water table, caves exist in 2 types: dry caves and wet caves. A majority of caves are 3-6m in diameter, some of which are up to over 10m with the length of several hundred meters. On the walls and ceilings of quite a few caves, turbulent flows of lava are clearly observed. A majority of caves are homes of many bats. The caves inner area certainly has much potentials for exploration in the disciplines of archeology, biology as well as geology. The cave system here will make a rich and unique geoheritage area of Trinh Nữ waterfalls, and will also be the tourism highlight provided that it is to be researched, restored and put available to geotourism.

Keywords: Cave - Basalt - Heritage.