Nauru Cave with an underground lake
Moqua Well
5 m below the entrance.
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data), CC BY 4.0, with relief shading from Copernicus WorldDEM-30
The descent
5 metres down, to scale.
The real relief above Moqua Well, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
a person (2 m) would fit upside down 2.8 times.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey.
5m
Depth
published (Wikidata)
5m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
28°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
49m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
28 °C inside, all year.
Deep inside, a cave keeps the average temperature of the year outside: about 28 °C here, in January and in August. The best months to escape the heat are all year round.
- 29°28°Jan
- 28°28°Feb
- 28°28°Mar
- 28°28°Apr
- 29°28°May
- 29°28°Jun
- 29°28°Jul
- 28°28°Aug
- 29°28°Sep
- 28°28°Oct
- 29°28°Nov
- 29°28°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Underground lake
Moqua Well is a cave with an underground lake in Nauru. It goes down 5 m below the entrance. The entrance is at 5 m. It has an underground lake.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Yarennearest town · 1.0 km in a straight line
- Gunnearest viewpoint · 0.6 km from the entrance
- Nauru International Airport (INU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 0 km in a straight line
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 5viewpoints within 3 kmLagoon viewpoint, Gun, Bunker and 2 more
- 3car parks within 2 km
- 5hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmMenen Hotel, Aiwo Hotel, Nauru Airport Homestay and 2 more
- 15restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- other cave entrances within 3 km
- springs within 2 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- marked hiking routes within 3 km
- climbing crags within 3 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
- information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- bus stops within 2 km
- campsites within 8 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Yaren1.0 km in a straight line
- Yangor1.8 km in a straight line
- Denigomodu2.7 km in a straight line
- Arijejen2.8 km in a straight line
- Menen3.6 km in a straight line
- Uaboe4.1 km in a straight line
- Anibare4.7 km in a straight line
- Baiti4.9 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Moqua Well.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | 29 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 |
| Afternoon | 29 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 29 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 28 | 29 | 29 |
| Night | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Rain (mm) | 194 | 192 | 193 | 161 | 116 | 107 | 122 | 118 | 108 | 118 | 133 | 202 |
| Rainy days | 19 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 15 | 18 |
| Sun hours/day | 7.2 | 7.2 | 7.5 | 7.8 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.8 | 8.8 | 9.0 | 8.3 | 7.5 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 29 | 29 | 28 | 194 | 7.2 |
| Feb | 28 | 28 | 28 | 192 | 7.2 |
| Mar | 28 | 28 | 28 | 193 | 7.5 |
| Apr | 28 | 28 | 28 | 161 | 7.8 |
| May | 29 | 29 | 28 | 116 | 8.6 |
| Jun | 29 | 29 | 28 | 107 | 8.5 |
| Jul | 29 | 29 | 28 | 122 | 8.4 |
| Aug | 28 | 28 | 28 | 118 | 8.8 |
| Sep | 29 | 29 | 28 | 108 | 8.8 |
| Oct | 28 | 28 | 28 | 118 | 9.0 |
| Nov | 29 | 29 | 28 | 133 | 8.3 |
| Dec | 29 | 29 | 28 | 202 | 7.5 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (5 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 124% | 152% | 124% | 41% | 24% | 4% | 24% | 23% | 11% | 7% | 4% | 3% |
| 2021 | 6% | 26% | 6% | 84% | 131% | 43% | 41% | 10% | 10% | 9% | 2% | 15% |
| 2022 | 29% | 23% | 12% | 6% | 4% | 20% | 23% | 8% | 10% | 7% | 3% | 2% |
| 2023 | 13% | 14% | 22% | 29% | 135% | 183% | 139% | 119% | 164% | 199% | 220% | 162% |
| 2024 | 107% | 191% | 84% | 48% | 45% | 34% | 91% | 32% | 98% | 18% | 2% | 9% |
| 2025 | 7% | 6% | 9% | 29% | 37% | 66% | 43% | 22% | 8% | 14% | 69% | 41% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Caves nearby.
Moqua Well
Nauru
- 5 mDepth
- —Galleries
- 5 mEntrance altitude
- 28 °CInside, all year
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q249061) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
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