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Cave Exploring
A recreational activity where people enter caves for the enjoyment of being underground. This also includes cave-diving, cavern-diving and exploring surface pits. Topics include exploring equipment, methods for safely entering caves, and rope techniques. Caving is an organized activity where safety is a primary concern. Cave explorers often assist Speleologist with collecting data for research projects. Caving does not include paying to enter a cave that has paved sidewalks and fixed lighting. Entering a cave without proper training and equipment is not caving. Cave Exploring is a physical activity that often involves hiking and camping in remote areas. Caver explorers often publish stories about their experiences underground, including pictures they took in the cave.
107 Questions
How do you get to the entrance of Airman's Cave in Austin TX?
Park near where 360 and Mopac come together, walk north towards barton springs 30 minutes or so, it will be on your right.
How can you tell if a cave is safe to enter?
There is an important difference between Risk & hazard. Caves present objective hazards but the risk of them causing an accident, and the potential severity of the outcome is far more subjective and difficult to assess. It depends greatly on the cave and natural conditions, and even mmore so, on the individual at the time.
Judging by cave rescue organisation annual reports and by personal experience....
Falling off a climb or even slipping off a boulder - the most common hazard and greatest risk.
Falls due to equipment failure: very rare. Modern caving equipment is subject to stringent quality regulations, and any kit failure now is almost certainly due to poor use, poor maintenance or neglect.
Water and cold: drowning, hypothermia. Modern techniques and clothing are designed to minimise the risk, particularly by rigging pitches (vertical drops) clear of the waterfall. It won't account for cavers themselves misjudging the obstacle and being over-confident in trying, for example, to swim across deep pools without suitable clothing and bouyancy aids.
Floods: if the water does not drown you the cold might kill you if you are trapped in a dry passage but beyond the flooded section. Avoided by knowing as much as possible about the chosen cave and its area, and not going down floo-prone caves when the weather is wet or mayy become so. It is very sobering to stand outside a cave and see silt on the trees some fifty feet above the entrance itself...
Lost: yes, cavers occasionally do become lost in complex systems, though it's not very common. Avoided by care, taking a copy of the survey or description and looking at the ladmarks as you go. No, in case you are wondering, you DO NOT mark the junctions with arrows etc on the walls, though small, temporary cairns you remove on exit may be permissable with consideration for the cave and other cavers. Nor, with one exception, do you use guide-string - unless you are a cave-diver... in which case you would not have asked. The exception is laying a guide-line to mark the safest route through a boulder-choke...
Which brings us to -
Things falling on you. It can happen but is rare. A greater hazard is movement or collapse of unstable boulders or loose slopes. Having said that, I recall reading of an American caver struck and injured in the vertical shaft entrance of one cave, by, of all things, a falling racoon!
Lastly and most importantly... YOU! Your physical and mental ability on the day, the care you take of your equipment and of yourself, your knowledge of the cave and weather conditions, and so on.
How fast do stalactites and stalagmites normally grow?
Stalactites grow .005 inches per year. It will take 200 years to grow one inch. stalagmites/stalagtites grow at .13 mm or .005 inches per year, and up to 3 mm or .12 inches per year. That would be about 100 yrs to grow 1cm on average
Purely terrestrial karst (limestone) cave passages can, and do, form in "phrearic" conditions, i.e. entirely full of flowing water, often under considerable hydrostatic pressure.
At least some karst caves found under the sea such as those around Florida developed above water at times of lower sea-level.
Topographical changes by glacial action - moraine dams - may raise the outlet level, drowning previously partly air-filled passages.
The Jenolan Caves are in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. They are close to the Blue Mountains cities of Lithgow and Katoomba.
What is the largest underground chamber in the world?
Sarawak Chamber is largest underground chamber in the world by area. It is in Borneo.
What is the cave called in the peak district in Derbyshire?
There are many caves in the Peak District, such as Peak Cavern (aka unofficially as The Devil's Arsehole), Blue John Cavern, Poole's Cavern, Speedwell Cavern.
All are well worth visiting.
Speedwell and Peak Caverns are in fact linked, but in a remote region beyond the show-cave limits.
How do you get rid of mold in your boots?
Mold in your boots...?
I'd suggest buying a new pair and taking better care of them.
What is the coldest cave on earth?
All caves are relatively the same temperature, which is 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
What types of rocks are usually present in areas with a lot of caves?
Most caves are in limestone or dolomite rocks. Some (e.g. Carlsbad Caverns) are in gypsum rocks. But caves can also exist in lava deposits (e.g. lava tube caves), marble rocks (i.e. metamorphosed limestone), and many other types of rocks at lower rates, depending on various variables.
What is the origin of spelunking?
Spelunking, the exploration of caves, derives its name from the Latin word "spelunca," meaning cave. The term gained popularity in the United States in the early 20th century, particularly after the publication of literature and guides on cave exploration. While the practice of exploring caves dates back to prehistoric times, the organized sport of spelunking emerged as a recreational activity in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, it encompasses both casual exploration and scientific study of cave systems.
