Volcanoes & Lava Tubes (Nicholas)

We are staying in an area that has many dormant volcanoes, of which Undara is the largest. Yesterday we climbed the Kilkani Crater and walked around its rim. The very centre of the crater had no trees on it and was just covered with grass. We had a great view from the rim to the many other volcanoes in the area. Today we did a tour through the Undara Lava Tubes.

The Undara Lava Tubes are said to be the best preserved and the longest continuous lava tubes in the world. They were formed 190, 000 years ago from the Undara Volcano which apparently expelled lava for 50 years to create a lava flow that covered about 164 square kilometres. The lava tubes themselves were made because the lava flowed down old creeks or river beds and the outside of the lava flow cooled and hardened while the inside of the tube stayed molten so it gradually hollowed out as the flow ran out of lava.

There are 72 caves in the Undara Lava Tube system which were originally single long tunnels, but have been broken into separate caves where the the tunnels have collapsed at various points. Most of the tunnels weren’t actually discovered until the 1980s, and there are others that exist, but the entrances haven’t been found. The places where the lava tubes exist underground are quite easy to identify as the places where they have caved in are usually filled with darker green foliage. These are called dry rain forest and contain plants that aren’t fire resistant because the rocks that surround it stop the dry grasses that burn easily from growing.

We went past the inner dome which is apparently really easy to get into and very difficult to get out of. Then we went in to the Mikoshi Cave which had daylight at both ends and was quite short. There were lots of different colours on the walls and roof such as white (calcium), red (iron oxides) and black which was its original colour. In the Mikoshi Lava Tube there were many bones and tracks from various animals and we were not allowed to walk on one side of the cave because the rangers do surveys of what animals are in the area based on the tracks the see in this part of the tube.

The last part of the tube we went in to was called the Wind Tunnel and was longer, darker and more interesting than Mikoshi was. Once you got all the way in there you couldn’t see a thing without a torch because it was pitch black. The dirt on the ground is at least 4 meters deep and there are dents in the ground from water coming down from the roof when it’s raining outside. There were also lots of bats and dead cane toads in this cave. The bats like it because it’s dark and the cane toads fall in and die because there isn’t anything for them to eat.

Mikoshi Cave

When I was younger I had a fascination with volcanoes, and through that I have learned lots about them. So it was an interesting experience to visit an actual one. It was difficult to comprehend what it was like all those years ago when the volcanoes were active and lava was spreading out across such large distances.