A Peek Inside the World's Largest Cave

[n2doc]

Last edited Thu Jan 17, 2013, 03:07 PM - Edit history (2)

by Katie Hosmer on January 16, 2013


Located in the Quang Binh province in Vietnam, the Son Doong Cave is the world's largest cave. The biggest section of the cave is more than 650 feet wide, almost 500 feet high, and approximately 5.5 miles long. According to the website, parts of the space are so massive that there are caverns big enough to fit an entire city street inside them.

Set along the Laos border, this largest single passage is part of a network of 150 other caves. It is located in a very remote jungle area within Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park and was rediscovered in 2009 by a group of British cavers.

"Son Doong" means "mountain river," and is aptly called such because the formation was created millions of years ago when river water eroded the limestone underneath the mountain. There is still much to discover, but so far, inside, explorers have found a fast-flowing river, giant stalagmites standing more than 230 feet high, and a tiny jungle, nicknamed "Garden of Edam."



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http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/son-doong-cave-vietnam

[shraby]

1. Awesome! Thanks for post.

[derby378]

2. Thanks for sharing! (n/t)

[TwilightGardener]

3. Very cool.

[FSogol]

4. Thanks for posting. n/t

[FourScore]

5. I'm scared of caves. n/t

[DemoTex]

6. I flew many missions over that area ..

Never saw a thing!

[annabanana]

7. This list of things I didn't know that I

don't know is vast indeed!

I LOVE finding out stuff I hadn't gotten around to imagining yet!

[MynameisBlarney]

18. That is a good feeling

innit?

[valerief]

8. Very, very cool, but somehow I was expecting a view into Dubya's ear.

[WillyT]

9. K & R !!!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

10. giant stalagmites standing more than 230 feet high....

Think about that.

That's easily the height of a 20 story building.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

14. Amazing when you put it that way.

Would love to see that in person.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

19. If you think that's something...

The Velebita Pit in Croatia is located in a cave and has a single vertical drop of over 1,900 feet.

The Empire State Building is 1,250 feet.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

22. Unreal.

I took some cave tours in Oregon and they were beautiful. But nowhere near this scale of course.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. I went to Carlsbad when I was a kid....

They do a full show now.

Then there's this when it comes to insanity:

http://www.kuriositas.com/2011/12/would-you-stand-on-kjeragbolten.html

[snooper2]

11. Largest KNOWN Cave...

[Zorra]

12. Wow, cool, thanks! Mama Earth is a totally amazing and wonderful home!

[Scurrilous]

13. Thanks!

[xtraxritical]

15. I seriously doubt "it was discovered in 2009 by British cavers".

[RC]

16. Yeah, but they are white and westerners.

Doesn't even matter is people were living in the cave at the time.

[Kali]

17. it does say REdiscovered

bit I get what you mean, all too often the perspective is Euro/Western-centric

[NYC_SKP]

21. It was found by a local man in 1991. British like to think they invented everything.

From the wikipedia entry:

...Sơn Đoòng Cave was found by a local man named Hồ-Khanh in 1991. The local jungle men were afraid of the cave for the whistling sound it makes from the underground river. It was not until 2009 that it became public after a group of British scientists from the British Cave Research Association, led by Howard and Deb Limbert, conducted a survey in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng from April 10 through April 14, 2009....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_Doong_Cave

[closeupready]

20. Thank God there is still virgin territory to despoil.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

23. Thanks for posting - I would love to visit that cave

I'm 63 years old but I think I could still handle it. I've been caving since I was 12 and hold Lifetime membership in the National Speleogical Society and am a Cave Research Foundation joint venturer.

I believe the single largest underground room, known as the Sarawak Chamber, is located in Gua Nasib Bagus (Good Luck Cave) in Sarawak (Borneo), Malaysia. The single room is 2,300 feet long, 1,300 feet wide and at least 230 feet high (look at how tiny the human figures are in the far reaches of the photograph).