Daring dive sheds light on cave

Malham Cove is dotted with caves and potholes

A daring scientist has proved that a natural beauty spot in Yorkshire is four times as old as previously thought.

Phillip Murphy dived under the huge wall of Malham Cove, in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, to recover stalactite samples from an underwater cave.

Scientists had believed the 250-feet high limestone cove, a popular attraction in Yorkshire, was formed during the last glaciation which ended 14,000 years ago.

But Mr Murphy has said his samples prove the natural formation must be at least 50,000 years old.

'Drip, drip' effect

"As one of the few cave-diving earth scientists in the UK, I can reach otherwise inaccessible areas," said Mr Murphy, who is based at Leeds University.

He went into the cave after hearing another diver had come across stalactites and stalagmites in the water.

But they do not form underwater and so they must have been created by dripping water before the cave system was flooded.

Mr Murphy said University of Liverpool archaeologist Alf Latham helped him date the stalactite and found it to be about 26,000 years old.

This means the cave system would have been created about 50,000 years ago, before the last ice age said Mr Murphy.

Cave network

He told his university website: "Although glaciers played a major role in forming the Dales landscape, they also scoured the area clean, leaving little surviving data on the surface.

"This discovery shows important evidence still exists underground, especially in the flooded caves where the only access is by diving."

Malham Cove is a 250-feet high sheer cliff, more than 1,000 feet wide.

It was formed by glaciers and waterfalls and the area around it covers a network of cave systems created by water dissolving the rock.

Mr Murphy says the valley below the cove was gouged out by a glacier which drained the cave system of its water.