Explorers discover spectacular caves in Vietnam

[RandomGuy]

by Brett Michael s
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...-in-vietnamFor decades, geologists have known that Vietnam is home to some of the world's most spectacular caves, many of them largely unexplored. Now husband-and-wife cavers have do ented perhaps the world's largest: Hang Son Doong, big enough in places to accommodate a New York City block of skyscrapers.

The cave in the Annamite Mountains contains a river and jungle (its name translates to "mountain river cave") and even its own thin clouds, and its end remains out of sight. It's part of a network of about 150 caves in central Vietnam near the Laotian border.

Howard and Deb Limbert of England led the first expedition to enter Hang Son Doong in 2009, but they were stopped a couple of miles in by a huge calcite wall. The team returned recently to climb the wall, take measurements and try to find the cavern's end.



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Pictures here. Holy . There is one at the mouth of this cave showing a tiny human dot set against the truly caverous opening. (adobe flash, so I can't link them, sorry)

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...er-photography

I did find this one:



and this: (sorry for the largeness of the picture, it was necessary to show the true scale-_RG)

[admiralsnackbar]

Wow.

(a completely unironic "wow," for the record.)

[Viva Las Espuelas]

pretty cool.

[phyzik]

I want to go...

[Trainwreck2100]

i want man to keep its poisonous hands out of there

[Bender]

might be some viet cong down there

[Dr. Gonzo]

That's some mighty fine spelunking.

[mouse]

Just more Proof at one time the world was under water.

[mrsmaalox]

Amazing.