Hidden Earth 2018

Exploration of Caves in Kaokoland, Namibia – Results of the 2018 Expedition

30 minute Lecture|Dr Mark Tringham

Abstract

Five cavers from GSS, RFDCC and SOB visited this area for a 21 day expedition during May 2018. This formed a follow-up to an earlier 2015 expedition and targeted more remote areas than had been reached before. The expedition objectives were to evaluate around 15 new caves entrances which had been identified with the help of locals. The new cave sites were explored and evaluated with a total surveyed length of 537m and cumulative depth of 183m. The expedition also revisited 2 caves that had been explored by SWAKNO in 1990, Orumana Sinkhole and Ohohorua (AKA Parakietgat). A resurvey was made of Orumana Sinkhole, the biggest cave in the region, adding in parts missed off the survey before, with a total length of 609m and depth of 59m. Photography and geological/speleogenesis observations were made in both of these.
The caves as a whole are of scenic and scientific interest. They have a likely ancient hypogenic origin unrelated to the present land surface or drainage and they contain a prolific bat and bird fauna as well as some preserved animal remains. Further potential undoubtedly remains in this region with caves likely to be of similar character to those already found,