Natural salt caves in Garmsar province of Iran
The natural salt caves or tunnel in Garmsar is one of the most important and amazing tourist attractions that is a great choice for nature lovers and tourists, and many travelers visit Semnan province and Garmsar city to visit this area every year.
Salt tunnels or salt caves are located 15 km west of Garmsar and 90 km from Tehran. Garmsar salt tunnels are one of the largest salt mines and tunnels in the Middle East.
The salt dome of Kuhdasht Garmsar is located in N351454 E540926 in Semnan province. Kuhdasht mine is located in the southeast of Garmsar and in the east of Tehran and is part of the Qom Formation. The mine is the place where the salt dome with gypsum and salt cover rises. Inside such salt domes is where oil (oil traps) get stuck. Due to the presence of sulfur in some oils, it is called sour oil. In this mine, extraction has been done from above horizontally so that water does not penetrate into the floor and they do not have to drain it. The visited mine is one of the few underground mines (similar to mines in Kerman ٬ Hormoz) in the world. The reason for not opening the mine is rain in the area, which causes the destruction of the open mine and the leaching of salt. Kuhdasht mine is an active day shift. The salt that makes up this mine is evaporative sediments and this sediment belongs to Infra Cambrian. Salt with a purity of 98% and about 80% of the province’s salt. The extraction rate of 150,000 tons per year and the approximate height of the dome from the access road surface is about 30 meters.
Kuhdasht salt mine has a mountain-like shape that over time and by extracting salt from it, it has become a cave. In fact, this cave is a man-made tunnel. At the entrance of this cave you will see salts that are dark in color and more gray, but the further you go, the brighter and brighter the color of the salts becomes. The walls and roof of the cave are also made of salt. Many stalactites also hang from the cave, which have a spear-like shape and give a special beauty to the cave’s environment.
The method of extraction of this mine is the room and base method with irregular bases and the bases are created by leaving salt columns. In the initial stage of extraction, the tunnel is dug 5 meters wide and 15 meters high. In this mine, the diameter of the bases is considered to be about 25 meters in order to increase the saving and safety of the mine during the calculations. The rooms of different parts are connected to each other by ramps with slopes of 0-5 degrees. In this mine, there are two work fronts with a height of three meters, which are created by the initial drilling of two steps in two different directions, which are done in one fire front after challenging and spending, and in the second front during loading and transportation. Fire is fired and this fire and loading are done continuously in two directions. Due to the 20-meter height of the rooms and tunnels, ventilation is done in a natural way, and for this reason, an explosion takes place at the end of working hours, and in the next shift, they load and unload.
the way salt is extracted from it causes the formation of dust and tourists can visit it with previous arrangements. Usually, a special pattern is used to build the tunnel on the roads (a mold that guarantees the strength, durability, and security of the tunnel), but for digging the opening and the shape of this salt cave, only the distance between the height and the width is considered, Which is approximate twice the width in height. At the entrance to the cave, the walls are dark and gray, and the closer we get to the depths, the more sandy and shiny they become, in fact, we pass the time. Approaching the brighter levels indicates that the time of digging that point of the cave is closer to the present.
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