Microgours: The Subterranean Miniature Rice Terraces

Speleothems are of different shapes and sizes. Of the miniature rock formations, the microgour is one of the formations that often subterranean tourists call “miniature rice terraces.” This article briefly presents microgours: The subterranean miniature rice terraces.

Microgours are miniature rimstone dams with associated tiny pools of the order of 1cm wide and deep on flowstone (Gillieson, 1996). Take note that these are small, about a centimeter, and should be interchanged with gours or rimstone dams.

More often than not, local guides, especially the volunteer ones, give names to speleothems. Its not uncommon to hear from them naming these microgours as rice terraces, owing it to the typical formation of the miniature gours.

So, the next time that you’ll see rock formation inside a cave resembling miniature terraces, they are called microgours. You might as well educate your friends who do not know of this.

Finally, microgours are also part of the delicate subterranean ecosystem. So your LNT principles should still apply to these structure–actually to all contained within the cave. Thou shall not touch rock formations or even the flora and fauna in these ecosystems.

Reference

Gillieson, D. (1996). Glossary of cave and Karst terminology. Retrieved on 25 August 2019 from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781444313680.gloss