Berliner Höhlenkundliche Berichte, Volume 23: The Caves of Rwanda / Les Grottes du Rwanda

About this book

Language: Bilingual in English and French, with trilingual abstract in English, French, and German

During a Rwandan–Swiss–German speleological project in 2003, nearly 10 km of cave passages were surveyed in 42 caves of the Ruhengeri province of northwestern Rwanda. In 2004, a second international speleological expedition of cavers from the Netherlands, USA, Kuwait and Germany resulted in the exploration of 20 more caves with a total passage length of about 9,1 km both in the Ruhengeri and Gisenyi province. Another project was carried out in 2007 by a Rwandan German–Dutch team. These investigations yielded 6,1 km from 10 new caves and from some open leads that remained unsurveyed during the 2004 expedition.

This volume is intended to replace the 2003 and 2004 project reports. All of the caves are exclusively developed in Cenozoic volcanic rocks. The most significant findings in 2004 were lava tube caves such as Ubuvumo Manjari deux (Mutobo district, Ruhengeri province) at 1660 m, which is currently the third longest cave of Rwanda, and Ubuvumo Cyamazera (Mutura district, Gisenyi province, 1484 m). Ubuvumo Nyiragihima (Mutobo district, Ruhengeri province) was explored to 1116 m and is currently the ninth longest cave of the country. In 2007 the new longest cave of Rwanda was discovered Ubuvumo Bwibihonga is a multi–level system of parallel lava tubes 4530 m in length. Many caves in NW Rwanda still await exploration and the potential for further discoveries is as excellent as the co-operation with the local authorities proved to be.

Contents

Summary, Résumé, Zusammenfassung     5
Acknowledgements / Remerciments     6

1     Introduction / Introduction     10
2     Geological settings / Situation géologique     13
3     The caves of Rwanda / Les grottes du Rwanda     15
3.1     General remarks / Remarques générales     15
3.2     List of caves of Rwanda / Liste des grottes du Rwanda     19
4     Recommendations / Recommandations     122/123
5     Useful addresses / Adresses utiles     126
6     References / Références     127
7     Annexes / Annexes     128–173
1.     Photo tables / Index des photos     
2.     List of caves surveyed during the 2003 speleological project in Rwanda / Liste des grottes topographiques pendant l’expédition spéléologique 2003 dans Rwanda     
3.     List of caves surveyed during the 2004 speleological project in Rwanda / Liste des grottes topographiques pendant l’expédition spéléologique 2004 dans Rwanda     
4.     List of caves surveyed during the 2007 speleological project in Rwanda / Liste des grottes topographiques pendant l’expédition spéléologique 2007 dans Rwanda     
5.     List of the longest and deepest caves of Rwanda (as at March 2007) / Liste des grottes les plus longues et plus profondes du Rwanda (dernière mise à jour Mars 2007)     
6.     Speleometric data of some selected caves of the Virunga mountains / Dates spéléometriques de quelques grottes sélectionnées situées dans la chaîne des Virunga     
7.     Atlas sheets of Ubuvumo Gacinyiro / Topographie de l’Ubuvumo Gacinyiro     
8.     Atlas sheets of Ubuvumo Nyabikuri–Ruri / Topographie de l’Ubuvumo Nyabikuri–Ruri     
9.     Atlas sheets of Ubuvumo Bwibihonga / Topographie de l’Ubuvumo Bwibihonga

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