Geological / terrain terminology

I've got a BIG valley, BIG waterfall(think Angel Falls) descending into a lake that empties into an underwater river.

Underneath the valley is a network of BIG caves and I'm setting three scenes at the entrance.

My way in is through a cave where a massive section of roof has collapsed in the fairly distant past, creating a big hole in the ground with one safe trail leading down to cave floor level. The diameter of the chasm is around half a mile.

My problem is overuse of chasm for the big hole.

Crater seems an appropriate substitute, but crater conjures up "impact" in my mind and there was no impact. By definition, volcanos have craters without impacts but I want to use crater spareingly.

Ravine / gorge / canyon have dictionary definitions too tight for me to think they'd work, so I'm short of descriptive terms.

Anyone able to help name the big hole in the groud?

Craig

waylander said:

What do the locals in your story call it?

Click to expand...

Bangs head on table.

Thank you. It's something I'm adding to my story on second draft and only created it yesterday as my final few chapters needed a more memorable setting, so it's new in my head. Of course the locals will have named it.

That helps a lot.

Cleft, abyss and sinkhole are all useable to mix it up a bit. I'm already using cavern for the chambers with intact ceilings.

Thanks everyone.


Craig