Cave Deep

[Jen Ondrey]

Thislist of deepest caves includes the deepest known natural caves according to maximum surveyed depth as of 2023[update]. The depth value is measured from the highest to the lowest accessible cave point.

The allure of the unknown often draws adventurers into the untouched backcountry, away from the safety of well-trodden paths. That very inaccessibility that entices us can also become our greatest peril when things go awry. We rely on the hope that if lost, injured, or in distress, a team of rescuers will come to our aid. But what if help cannot reach us?

Louisa: The inaccessibility of the backcountry is what draws so many of us to go off the beaten path, and at the same time, that remoteness is the very thing that can get us in trouble when things go wrong. Still, we often take for granted that in most places a team of rescuers will be able to come and help if we find ourselves lost, injured, or in distress.

John Lane: When I was 21 years old, I got a job at Moaning Caverns in Calaveras County, California, and started leading caving adventure tours where people start with 180-foot repel, and then we would go off and crawl around into the passages for about three hours. And so doing it there, I wanted to go find wild caves.

Louisa: Today, John is one of the most experienced cavers in the country, and back in 2006 he had a number of serious expeditions under his belt, including ones in Borneo, Sumatra, and Central America.

John Lane: Michael and I came in late. It was, we hiked in in the dark and we arrived at camp about, I guess about 10 p.m. Some of the others were already there. Once we got into camp, we set up, and went to sleep. Got up the next morning and had breakfast. It was a beautiful, sunny day, a little bit cool.

We started getting our gear together. Our objective was to go into this cave, and I leave the name of the cave out, just it attracts people to go to these places. This one, actually, aside from my experience, it is dangerous. So, the cave was about 2 miles away from where we were camped, and we started getting ready in the morning and our objective was to do some lead climbing inside of the cave and check out some vertical leads.

We were gonna set bolts and see where this passage would go. If you were to think of a sponge that was rock, and it has all those pores in it. These caves are kind of like that. And this particular cave has over 16 miles of passage and over 1,200 vertical feet.

Michael Lane: We went through several corkscrews and extremely tight squeezes and pushed our way forth. Before we came to a large room, we had a plan to take a break and continue maybe 30 minutes to an hour while some of the more experienced cavers scaled the wall.

John Lane: Greg and I had gone down out of the Cthulhu Room, and we had gone through a maze of breakdown where rocks had fallen from the ceiling, and you crawl through them trying to find other passages.

I made a fire, got comfortable with my sleeping bag, and I took my coveralls and my boot off, and it looked like my leg. For my knee down, it looked like a sausage with the skin just about to burst. We had a box of wine and I hit that pretty hard, and a few hours later everybody else showed up.

Michael Lane: John was sitting by the fire with a glass of red wine that I had packed in the day before and he made sure to save me a glass, and I was just so happy to see that he was, he was okay.

Louisa: Michael drove John part of the way home and when it was time to part ways, John decided he could safely drive himself since it was his left leg that was injured. When he got home late at night, his wife Anna, could tell something was wrong.

The next morning I told them what had happened and they started taking X-rays and it turns out that I had sheared the tibia, the ball on, on my tibia, on my left leg, and otherwise I was fine. Nothing else was broken, just achy and sore.

The Pacific Northwest is volcano country. We're constantly reminded of this by the presence of mountains like Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, and, of course, Mount Saint Helens. Their peaks, with attendant craters, some still steaming, are always on the horizon even if the clouds sometimes hide them. However, not all the volcanic history is above ground. The mountains are full of lava tubes and many are easily accessible and ready for exploring. The Ape Caves of Mount Saint Helens are well known and there's a National Park Service unit built around the lava tube in Central Oregon. The Guler Ice Caves, however, are much more obscure like Mount Adams, their source

Similar to the others, the Guler Ice Caves are a partially collapsed lava tube. This means there's an interesting entrance and lots of rubble on the floor of the cave. What makes them special is that the water that leaks into the caves freezes in winter forming ice stalactites and stalagmites. Cool, huh? (See what I did there?)

The only problem with going on Black Friday (aka, #OptOutside day) is that although there's snow above ground it hasn't been cold enough long enough to form the ice in the caves. Instead of being cold and sparkly it was just cold and wet.

The caves are still a great place to visit. It's free-form caving and perfect for junior speleologists. We saw a couple of bats and more spiders than I ever need to see again. (Always take into consideration white nose syndrome if you're visiting caves. Gear used in another cave can inadvertantly contaminate a new cave.)

The Guler Ice Caves aren't hard to get to once you know where they are, but they're not convenient so the site is pretty empty much of the year. The Washington State Atkisson Sno-Park (permit required) is nearby so even when the snow is heavy (and presumably the caves are full of ice) it's accessible.

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Very little is known about Neanderthal cultures1, particularly early ones. Other than lithic implements and exceptional bone tools2, very few artefacts have been preserved. While those that do remain include red and black pigments3 and burial sites4, these indications of modernity are extremely sparse and few have been precisely dated, thus greatly limiting our knowledge of these predecessors of modern humans5. Here we report the dating of annular constructions made of broken stalagmites found deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwest France. The regular geometry of the stalagmite circles, the arrangement of broken stalagmites and several traces of fire demonstrate the anthropogenic origin of these constructions. Uranium-series dating of stalagmite regrowths on the structures and on burnt bone, combined with the dating of stalagmite tips in the structures, give a reliable and replicated age of 176.5 thousand years (2.1 thousand years), making these edifices among the oldest known well-dated constructions made by humans. Their presence at 336 metres from the entrance of the cave indicates that humans from this period had already mastered the underground environment, which can be considered a major step in human modernity.

J.J., S.V. and D.G. coordinated this study; they wrote the article and conducted the field sampling. M.S. participated in the cave discovery and is in charge of the logistical support and cave access. H.Ch. made the U-Th measurements and R.L.E. oversaw and helped to interpret the U/Th dates. D.B. conducted the δ18O and δ13C measurements. C.B. is responsible for the temperature monitoring. H.C., S.D. and X.M. realised the geographical and new topography studies of the cave. F.L.-C. realised the drawings. F.L. realised the magnetism measurements and their interpretation, D.D., D.G. and J.-N.R, the SEM-EDS, FTIR measurements and Raman spectrometry. F.M. participated in the field trips and archaeological survey. P.M. realised the photogrammetric work. C.F. realised the study of fireplaces and heated areas. .R. participated in the field trips and the coring. F.S. is responsible for the statistical studies of the structure elements.

The 3D-model clearly showing the different types of structures: two annular ones (with superposed layers of stalagmites), which are the most impressive constructions, and four smaller stalagmite accumulation structures (especially two in the centre of the main structure A). (MOV 25689 kb)

Very little is known of the cultural life of Neanderthals, the extinct hominins most closely related to modern humans, and of the earliest Neanderthals we know next to nothing. Since its natural closing during the Pleistocene period and until its discovery in 1990, no humans entered Bruniquel Cave, located in southwest France. Now Jacques Jaubert and colleagues describe and date two ring-like structures made of low walls of broken stalagmite pieces, deep in Bruniquel Cave. The construction of the structures 336 metres from the cave entrance, the larger more than five metres across, speaks of human industry, and the date of around 176,000 years ago places it within the compass of early Neanderthals and among the earliest well-dated structures made by humans. Traces of burning are found associated with the stalagmites, but the function of these structures remains conjectural.

The Helms Deep castle at 32/66 has a cave in the back behind the throne room which makes building there in PVE not enjoyable at all. Being one of the coolest spots in the game its a shame we can't build here fully.

As seen in the screenshot the box base is the best we could do it fit everything in which is dang ugly. The cave in the back is not a big cave at all & doesnt have anything important like artifacts/runes it only has small crystal, bug, pearl spawns.

My apologies, I was just reminded we are on a dedicated server with clipping off, so if you are on vanilla official this may not be helpful and I can can remove it. The post is meant as encouragement. I still had to bump things around, work out snap points, blind place cables and pipes etc.

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