Giant Cave with Underground River Discovered in Canada, Never Before Seen by Humans
In Canada this week, the nation of giant evergreen trees and the cold, staff employed by the Ministry of National Resources announced that they had stumbled upon an absolutely massive cave.
So massive is this cave, that the mouth of it alone takes up a measurement of 328 feet, or roughly 100 meters, by 197 feet, or roughly 60 meters. Perhaps more interesting of all, despite the absolutely noticeable nature of the cave, experts believe that this is actually the very first time human beings have ever seen it.
During what was referred to as a very Canadian caribou counting exercise, the team stumbled upon the cave while flying a helicopter over the British Columbia Wells Gray Provincial Park.
“My immediate reaction was that there can’t be a cave there, it’s impossible,” said a geologist involved in the expedition of the cave all the way back in September, Catherine Hickson. “At the moment [the cavers are] saying it certainly is one of the largest in Canada.”
John Pollack, a speleologist and surveyor who took part in the expedition said to Canadian Geographic that when a person stands on the edge of the cave looking deep down into it, the line of sight that person has is almost 600 feet, or 183 meters. “You don’t get lines of sight of 600 feet in Canadian caves – it just doesn’t happen,” he said.
Perhaps because of the cold surrounding the region, up until now, this cave has remained completely hidden. As of yet, the researchers have not been able to find any reference to the so far unnamed cave anywhere, in historical records, or anywhere.
(Image credit: ici.radio-canada)
Now, they want to consult with indigenous communities to see whether or not the existence of this cave is documented in their own records. Maybe the indigenous people should just keep the cave info if they have any and not say a word, maybe they deserve it, there’s something a little weird about wanting to quantify every single thing isn’t there?
It is suspected that the cave would have been covered in snow year-round, making it totally invisible and masking the mouth of the cave, but now the snow isn’t there. That’s just a suspicion, now scientists think the Earth is actually cooling because of the solar cycle.
As of yet, only one brave person has actually made a descent into the cave: caver Lee Hollis, who made it 262 feet or 80 meters down into it, but had to stop due to the waterfall on the inside of the cave, capable of dumping out 5 to 15 cubic meters of water every second.
They even believe the waterfall leads to an underground river that emerges 1,640 feet or 500 meters below, and 1.3 miles or 2.1 kilometers away from the mouth of the cave.
The location of the cave isn’t being revealed to the public. Why not? That’s the type of consequence people get when they let the government do this kind of work. They want to go ask some indigenous people if they know about the cave, for what? To exploit it and tell them they can’t go there? Preservation is important and all, but it doesn’t seem likely that a wave of tourists could come blow up the spot and ruin it.