Etat Des Lieux Et Specificites Geologiques Des Cavites Karstiques Des Formations Du Sous-Groupe Schisto-Calcaire Des Regions De Mbanza-Ngungu, Kimpese Et Songololo (Kongocentral, Republique Democratique Du Congo).

Karst, and particularly endokarst, has been little studied in the formations of the Schisto-calcaire subgroup in the Mbanza-Ngungu, Kimpese and Songololo regions of Kongo Central Province (DRC), and is therefore poorly understood. Caves are a window on the underground world and play an important role in societal fields such as geology (mineral resources, very important water reservoir), archaeology/anthropology (sites of very ancient human activities) and biology (reserve of endemic cavernicolous animals). They can also be the cause of cave-ins. Studying the endokarst is therefore important for society. This knowledge cannot be acquired without a prior inventory made available to scientists wishing to further research in this field. Inventories existed prior to this study, but they were confined to listing the caves cited in documents, often old ones, produced by archaeologists, biologists and rarely by geologists. The caves cited were generally with approximate locations, or even without locations, which led to confusion as to the uniqueness of the caves cited, or even compared, by the various authors. This study is the result of a compilation of bibliographical data, with relocation in GIS where data permitted, supplemented by field surveys carried out from 2019 to 2022 with the aim of verifying the locations of the caves.