A cave born in a colder time
The Chandelier Cave system is a geological relic of the last ice age. Thousands of years ago, when global sea levels were significantly lower, this was a dry cave. Rainwater, made mildly acidic by atmospheric carbon dioxide, percolated through the island's porous limestone. This process dissolved calcium carbonate, which was then redeposited as water dripped from the cave ceiling, slowly forming the immense stalactites and corresponding stalagmites seen today. These formations grew in the open air, drop by drop, over millennia.
As the Pleistocene epoch ended and the planet warmed, melting ice caps caused the sea level to rise. Water inundated the cave, concealing its entrance and filling its lower passages. The cave system consists of five distinct chambers connected by underwater tunnels. Four of these chambers retain a pocket of air trapped against the ceiling, allowing divers to surface inside the island. The entrance to this submerged world is an opening approximately 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface of Malakal Harbor.
An isolated atmosphere
Navigating the Chandelier Cave requires scuba equipment and underwater lights. The system's maximum depth is around 12 meters (36 feet). Inside, divers encounter a halocline, a distinct, blurry layer where denser saltwater from the ocean meets lighter freshwater filtering down through the island's limestone. This layering can create unusual visual effects in a dive light's beam.
The primary features are the air chambers. Here, divers can remove their regulators and breathe the trapped air while observing the cave formations from a different perspective. This air is isolated from the outside atmosphere. Its composition is altered by biological and geological processes within the cave, including respiration from unique bacteria that colonize the cave walls. The icicle-like stalactites give the cave its name, looking like chandeliers when illuminated. The walls of the cave host sponges, which in turn provide a habitat for small crabs and shrimp. Near the sunlit entrance, schools of cardinalfish and soldierfish live there.