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Leviathan Cave

earth science Maturity 11-13 Next article →

Leviathan Cave is a huge place in Kenya. It is a lava tube. This means it is a tunnel made by fire. It is a very special part of the Earth. This cave is the longest one in Africa. It is also very deep.

Lava tubes form in a certain way. First, hot lava flows along the ground. The top layer of lava cools down. This creates a hard crust. The hot lava stays underneath that crust. It keeps flowing through the middle. Once the lava leaves, a long tunnel stays behind.

People found this cave in 1975. It is located in the Chyulu Hills National Park. This park is near the Nyiri Desert. The desert is northwest of Tsavo West National Park. In the 1980s, it was very famous. It was the third-longest tube in the whole world.

The cave is split into two main parts. These are the Upper Leviathan and the Lower Leviathan. Tectonic plates moved the ground to split them. These plates are huge pieces of the Earth's crust. We measure the two parts separately. The cave is now the 11th-longest tube in the world. It remains the longest one in Africa.

You can think of the cave like a giant pipe. The lava acted like water in a pipe. It flowed through and left a path. This path is now a dark, deep space. It is a huge part of the Kenyan landscape. It shows us how the Earth changes over time.

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