Flying visit.
It's obvious from this photograph how much rain had been coming down. The hills were oozing it out.
There must be numerous undiscovered caves in these areas as well.
I heard earlier this week that they have just discovered a cave over a mile deep in China.
This is a very interesting side issue from The Net as well.
10 Deepest Caves in the World
Sun, May 18, 2008
Offbeat News 
Image via Plamen Stoev
Long ago, our ancestors were using caves as shelter from wild animals and the forces of nature. Perhaps, this base necessity however, has always been eclipsed by man’s curiosity and desire to explore the mystical and enigmatic air inside the abyss. In the past, Environmental Graffiti has explored some
amazing uses of caves – from discotheques, temples and underground cities to hotels and primary schools. That’s only scratching at the surface however. Today, with all sorts of equipment, caving has turned into something of an extreme sport - it involves climbing, crawling and sometimes even swimming. Looking at the most extreme end then, what about those caves that create the enigma, that
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]fuel[/color][/color] the stuff of legends; caves that appear bottomless and that seem to extend to the very center of the earth? What are the ten deepest caves on our planet?
10.
Cehi 2
Slovenia’s deepest cave was mapped by Italian explorers from the Club Alpino Italiano of Trieste. They published a very interesting document, called
Progressione 50: although it’s in Italian, you can see how the expedition went inside the Cehi 2 (or
Ceki 2). The cave, which is in the Canin Massif, is located in the Western Julian Alps, on the Italian-Slovenian border. The alpinists managed to go as deep as
4928 feet (1502 m). To put this in perspective, the depth is over twice the height of the tallest man-made structure in the world.
9.
Sima de la Cornisa - Torca Magali
This is a caving
[COLOR=blue! important][COLOR=blue! important]system[/color][/color] in the Picos de Europa mountains in Spain. An international team of speleologists including Valencian Silvino Villa and the Belgian Jan Masschelein explored the cave
last summer and managed to go down, in what they call a “bottomless pit”, to
4944 feet (1507 m).
8.
Shakta Vjacheslav Pantjukhina
As you notice from the next few items on the list, the Bzybsky Massif in Georgia is renowned and very rich in caves. More than 400 are present and just one of them that made it to our list of the deepest caves in the world is the
Shakta Vjacheslav Pantjukhina. It’s
4948 feet (1508) m deep.
7.
Sarma
The seventh deepest cave in the world is in the Caucuses range, in Abkhazia, Georgia and it goes down up to
5062 feet (1543 m). Speleologists that attended the expeditions from December 18, 2007 to January 12, 2008, mentioned that Sarma has the biggest
potential to surpass Voronja and break the world record for being the deepest cave. They are still exploring the interior of this unfathomable enigma.
6.
Torca del Cerro del Cuevon also known as T-33 and
La Torca de las Saxifragas
Together, these two form the deepest cave in Spain. Located in the Picos de Europa mountains in the northern coast of the country, there are very few entrances to the cave, thus rendering it incredibly difficult to explore, so much so, that is considered to be
the most technically difficult in the world. It took explorers 3 days to go to
5213 feet (1589 m) down.
5.
Reseau Jean Bernard
Also known as the Gouffre Jean-Bernard or simply Jean Bernard, this is a
5256 feet (1602m) deep cave in the French Alps, in Samoëns. The cave has at least 8 entrances and was first discovered by the Groupe Vulcain back in 1959. Until 1980, it was considered to be the deepest cave in the world. Despite this,
professional cavers consider the Jean Bernard not very interesting to climb.
4.
Vogelshacht and Lamprechtsofen
A
Polish Expedition (
pdf link) connected the two caves:
Vogelshacht and Lamprechtsofen, located in the Leoganger Steinberger area, in Salzburg, Austria. The cave system has so far been proven to be
5354 feet (1632 m) deep. Incredible really, that’s over a mile. Notwithstanding this, explorations continue, so this could be only the tip of the iceberg.
3.
Gouffre Mirolda
From 9 to 12 January in 2003, an expedition exploring the
Gouffre Mirolda cave in France, found that it was connected with the Lucien Coudlier, breaking the record for the world’s
deepest cave . The cave measured
5685 feet (1733m) while the world record at the time was 5610 feet (Voronja cave). It was the first cave to be explored below 1 km. The record however, was beaten within a matter of years.
2.
Illuzia-Snezhnaja-Mezhonnogo
Two times larger than the world’s deepest cave, the
Illuzia-Snezhnaja-Mezhonnogo cave is the second deepest in the world. Located on the Bzyb massif in Abkhazia, Georgia, the cave is renowned for being dangerous and very difficult to work in.
A team lead led by Aleksey Shelepin, in July 2007, came out with
a very spectacular discovery giving birth to the cave system Illuzia-Sneznaja-Mezonnogo. Apparently there are two caves, Illuzia (
Illusion) and Sneznaja (
Snowy), that connect together and go down
5,751 feet (1,753 meters).
1. Krubera-Voronja Cave Also known as the Cave of Kruber, Voronja is the deepest cave in the world with recent measurements extending to a total depth of
7188 feet (2191 m). It was the first cave to be explored to a depth of more than 2 km down.
On August 5th 2007,
an international expedition with 56 members went in and the interesting thing is, they said that the cave system could be deeper. “The caving game is far from over. It won’t be; not as long as deeper abysses call out to be explored” said Alexander Klimchouk, a renowned speleologist.
The Crows’ Cave (that what it means) is located in Georgia in the Arabika Massif of the Gagra Range, near the coast of the Black Sea.
Environmental Graffiti is up for four bloggers’ choice awards. You can vote for us for best entertainment blog, best blog of all time, best geek blog and best animal blogger. If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subscribe to our RSS feed? We’ll even throw in a free album. Related Posts alpinism,
caves,
deepest caves,
exploration,
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steology,
world This post was written by: Alex Ion - who has written 10 posts on
Environmental Graffiti.
There's quite a bit to digest with the various links from the above as well.
Just to keep on The Lancashire track though, I thought this was a very pleasant river snap as well.
