Undara

 

On Friday 12 Sept we went on a guided tour to the Volcanic National Park.  We left Bedrock C.P. at 8am with 16 other passengers.  190,000 years ago, one of the rarest and most fascinating volcanic phenomena o Earth was being created. This National Park is home to one of the Earth's longest lava flows from a single volcano in modern geological time.  Apparently the massive eruption caused lava to flow more than 90km to the north and over 160kms to the north-west (Gulf Savannah region).  Scientists estimated that 23 cubic kms of lava flowed from the volcano at a rate of about 1000 cubic metres every second (A lava flow this large could fill the Sydney Harbour in six days).

 

Ranger explaining about eruption.

This explains the 2 types of eruptions.

We climbed to the top of the Kalkani Crater,  this is the view looking over to the Undara volcano.  The lava "oozed" and this formed the lava tubes. 

We are now standing at the top of the crater looking down into it.

Track going down into the lava caves (after a lovely morning tea)

We had to climb over rock, note the cables we used for stability.

One of the lava caves

Me struggling down!

The colours are formed by deposits of calcium and iron.

Roof of the cave. 

 

have a look at:

 

www.undara.com.au