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An Unusual Lava Cave From Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, Frederick Belton
An Unusual Lava Cave From Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania, Donald A. Mcfarlane, Joyce Lundberg, Frederick Belton
WM Keck Science Faculty Papers
A new type of lava cave is described from the summit crater of Ol Doinyo Lengai, a unique active carbonatite volcano in Tanzania. This and other similar caves on Ol Doinyo Lengai are formed by thermal erosion and aqueous dissolution of otherwise solid spatter cones. Meteoritic water and endogenous condensates act to form speleothems of complex mineralogy up to 3 m in length. We propose the new classification of “polygenetic spatter cone cave”.