A peek at the Chasm's natural arches

Most of the upper reaches of Yahalma and Glada rivers have naturally and mysteriously formed ledges and arches. This is a series of arches that have been finished as convenient bridges in the lower Chasm, over the Glada River.

The mysterious ledges of the Chasm-Canyon system.

Deep down the Chasm ( the famous part of the Canyon that has a very narrow top opening) is lit by sparse sunlight breaking through the narrow slit, and by the sidelights illuminating the Yellow Brick Road. The major feature in this picture is one of the ledges that are found all over the northern peninsula. These ledges protrude out of cave floors, mountain valleys. This part of the Chasm is over 800 feet deep, shows no traces of erosion or natural arch formations, and has no debri to suggest that the ledge was a part of an arch that collapsed.

A glimpse at the upside down life of the Chasm

This is the monkey bat, or the troll bat as they call it here in the north of the island. The bats often stay topside after the daybreak, foraging for fruits. The rest of them form a formidable swirling animal jetstream entering any major opening of the Chasm.

These are the mushrooms of the Chasm. First they grow down and then curl upwards. They are edible, and somewhat more tasty than the typical cave mushroom you can buy at your local Trader Joe's, Publix or Kroger.

The lush oasis openings in the Chasm

This is a place where the Chasm is more than 500 meters deep and opens wide enough to admit precious light and allow the tropical growth.


The Pit Cave is a actually a natural opening of the Chasm. The sunlight supports the lush oasis growth albeit along the vertical walls. Ever present weeping falls are seen here too.

Next post about the Chasm I would post the pictures of monkey bats and other creatures.

The Canyon drops down into the Chasm

This is my friend's rather impressionist painting of another location where the Canyon turns into the Chasm (see this post for photos). The vine tree roots are rather exaggerated, but true to their tendency to root into any surface and allow the trunk to be almost suspended in air. The monkey, or troll bats have also been exaggerated.

There are plenty of miniature geysers all over the floor. The Chasm opening is lit up with reddish glow from below by settlements.

The Chasm and the Canyon Gorge - the Fissure

Academia has still not decided on the sequence of events that led to the formation of the Chasm and Canyon fissure. There are many conflicting scientific observations.

Firstly, the date of the sudden cataclysmic uplift that thrust Attland island, and its northern mountainous peninsula high above the sea level is different from the formation of the inner peninsula geology. However, they are not too ancient: the dates point to a very recent phase of the quaternary period. It seems that the Fissure appeared shortly after the catastrophic uplift.



What is certain is that the fissure happened when the northward down slope of the northern mountains cracked and slid relatively short distance, which created a deep gorge.
The width of the gorge varies erratically from several meters to about 300 meters.

The fissure as seen in the image, is a U shaped tear, is anywhere from 30 meters to 2000 meters deep.

In its early history, the cataclysmic fissure caused the river to fall into the newly formed canyon and start to fill it, eventually creating a deep lake that almost reached the upper rim of the fissure. At least 200 hundred years passed before another critical event took place. The waters of Glada river found a newer, shorter drainage path, (though not through corroding the canyon walls) and rushed along the new course. Most likely, post-fissure, minor racking lasted for many years, finally creating a narrow and deep passage for the river. See the image above.

The relatively wide parts (the middle 20 miles and the 10 miles at the eastern end) of the fissure remains open, while the narrower parts have become overgrown with vegetation, effectively closing it off from much of sunlight. The fissure has multitude of dry and flooded caves, ledges and arches of mysterious geological origin, and unique flora and fauna (marsupial tarsiers and bats).