The largest cave system in the world. Amazing caves of the world. Vatnajokull glacier and its caves

Deep underground, where the sun does not shine and people rarely appear, the unknown lurks, mysterious world where amazing shimmering insects live, incredible gems, stone formations magical shapes and any size, marble columns, halls and grottoes, the creator of which is not a man, but nature itself.

Blue Grotto, Italy

The blue grotto is practically an emblem Italian island Capri. This magnificent sea ​​cave, located on the coast of the island, is known to all tourists.

The Blue Grotto is unique in that its walls glow and sparkle with blue and emerald hues. This breathtaking glow comes from two sources of light: one is a small entrance to the cave, located above the water, where bright daylight penetrates, and the other is a large wide opening that is immersed in water and from which a muffled bluish light flows into the cave.

Cave of Crystals, Mexico

First, in 1910, the Cave of Swords was discovered, which is located just above the Cave of Giant Crystals. In the Cave of Swords, the crystals are much smaller, about one meter long, and the temperature is colder. Perhaps that is why the crystals in the upper cave have stopped growing.

The Cave of Giant Crystals was discovered in 2000. Its level is covered with completely transparent faceted blocks. The cave contains the largest natural crystals ever found in the entire world. The largest crystal found here was 12 meters long and 4 meters in diameter. The usual temperature in the cave is 50-58 degrees Celsius, and the humidity is 90-99%. Due to such conditions, the cave remains relatively unexplored and people without special equipment can stay in it for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Cave Krubera, Abkhazia

Krubera Cave, or Crow Cave, is located in the Caucasus Mountains and is the deepest known cave in the world. Its depth exceeds two thousand meters. Crow cave is called due to the fact that during its study, speleologists had to drive away entire flocks of crows from the entrance.

Fingal's Cave, Scotland

This is a sea cave located on desert island Staffa in Scotland. It is formed entirely from hexagonal columns of basalt and was washed out by the flow of water in the coastal rock. Inside, the cave resembles a Gothic temple, which is only emphasized by the size of the grotto, the high ceiling and the sounds that create waves rolling on the rock.

Eisriesenwelt ice cave, Austria

The name of the cave means "World of Ice Giants". It is a naturally formed limestone cave and is the largest of its kind. The Eisriesenwelt stretches for 42 kilometers and falls 400 meters deep. Ice is preserved in it all year round. Since the entrance to the cave is open all year, cold winds freeze the snow that gets inside. During the summer, the ice sheets persist and do not melt due to the cold winds that circulate inside the cave.

Although the cave is relatively long, only the first thousand meters are open to tourists and covered with ice. Most of the caves are simple limestone.

Underwater river Puerto Princesa, Philippines

Puerto Princesa is an underground river named one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. She is recognized as an object world heritage UNESCO.

In 2010, a group of ecologists and geologists discovered that this underground river has a second floor and there are many small waterfalls in the cave and a hall with a 300-meter dome, where you can see not only sinter formations of various shapes, but also large bats. The river is divided into several streams and canals and goes deep into the cave, where tourists can no longer get due to lack of oxygen.

Mammoth Cave National Park, USA

Mammoth Cave National Park is the largest cave system in the world and will probably stay that way forever, because breaking the record of 52,830 hectares is next to impossible. Second largest cave system hardly reaches half of this area.

The national park offers several cave tours to visitors. The longest of them takes six hours and passes through the main attractions. Also, the guests of the park have the opportunity to go on "wild" tours, where you can see the unlit parts of the caves, climb dirty and dusty tunnels and examine the sinter formations in the light of lanterns trembling in your hands.

Skocjanske Jame, Slovenia

This limestone cave system is one of the most remarkable underground phenomena in the Slovenian karst region. This cave also ranks among the most important caves in the world and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. International scientific circles are also considering it for the title of natural treasure of the planet.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, USA

This is one of the most visited cave parks in the United States. The attraction of the caves is the Great Hall - a huge grotto made of natural limestone, a kilometer long, 190 meters wide and 80 meters high.

Numerous tourist programs can be enrolled in the caves, including the popular bat-watching. They are followed at sunset, when they fly out of the depths of the caves, and at dawn, when they fly back. It is even possible to stay in the cave for the night, spend the night in tents or without them, but this requires permission.

Waitomo Cave, New Zealand

This cave is popular all over the world due to the fact that the fireflies that live in it turn the ceiling of the cave into a starry sky that is directly above your head, literally.

Fireflies arachna luminosa live only in New Zealand and only in this cave. They are about the size of a normal mosquito, and millions of individuals live in the Waimoto cave. The cave tour begins with a boat ride on an underground river where the ceiling of the cave is lit only by these spectacular glowing mosquitoes.

Caves served as a refuge for man at the dawn of civilization. And today these underground voids attract brave speleologists who seek to penetrate as deep as possible to the heart of the Earth.

Today's top ten contains largest caves in the world. Two of them are located on the territory of Abkhazia, which allows you to visit these natural monuments hundreds of Russian tourists.

Optimisticheskaya is the largest gypsum cave in the world. It is located on the territory of Ukraine in the Ternopil region. The cave has not been explored to the end, but the length of the corridors known to speleologists is 230 km.

9. Ox Bel Ha

The name of this system of underwater caves, translated from one of the Indian dialects, means "three ways of water." The system is located in Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula, the total length of the corridors is 256 km.

8 Jewel Cave System

located in South Dakota the cave system has a total length of more than 257 km. In the galleries of the cave there are strong drafts, the gusts of which reach 15 m/s. The maximum depth of the cave is 192 meters.

7. Lamprechtsofen

This cave system is located in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Its length is 38 km, and maximum depth- 1,632 meters. It is noteworthy that the practical Austrians built a mini-power plant in the cave, which produces energy from the flow of an underground river.

6. Mammoth Cave

Located in the state of Kentucky (USA), the karst cave is considered the longest in the world. The length of the studied part of the crossings exceeds 587 km. The cave was discovered in 1797. Its maximum depth is 115 meters.

5. Snowy

One of the deepest caves in the world is located in Abkhazia. Its depth is 1,753 meters, and the length of all corridors, sometimes quite low, is more than 24 km. "Snezhnaya" is a system of three caves, which are interconnected without siphons - underwater tunnels filled with water.

4. Skocjan Caves

The cave system, located in the mountains of Slovenia, has a length of 6 km. The height of the arches reaches 50 meters. There are more than 30 underground waterfalls in the cave system, there is also a 15-meter stalagmite, nicknamed the Giant.

3. Sarawak Grotto

located on Borneo island the grotto is 400 meters wide, 700 meters long and up to 70 meters high. The grotto is part of the huge Gua-Nasib-Bagus cave. Only trained tourists are allowed on an excursion to Sarawak; a visit to the grotto lasts all day.

2. Krubera Cave

It is also called the Crow Cave, and it is located in the Gagra Range in the territory of Abkhazia. The cave has two branches and is the deepest in the world. The depth of the first branch is 2,196 meters, the second - 1,300 meters.

1. Son Doong Cave

The world's largest cave located in Vietnam, 500 km from Hanoi. The height of the arches of the cave is up to 240 meters, the width is 100 meters, and the length of passages and corridors has been studied so far for only 6.5 km. Speleologists discovered the grotto in 2005, although locals knew about Sondong since 1991.

What do the caves hide in their twilight, how are they ready to amaze even the most sophisticated viewer, is there at least a fraction of the truth in the ancient legends about them? You can learn about all this from this virtual tour.

The most famous caves in Russia

Kungur cave

The Diamond and Polar grottoes are recognized as the most beautiful. All this is complemented by about seventy lakes, the largest of which is big lake. According to ancient folk legends, this cave used to be inhabited. This is confirmed by the well and the hermit's hut found in the Cross Grotto.

Kapova cave

Human skulls were also found here, however, without skeletons. A theory has been put forward that this type of burial used to speak of the significance and greatness of the deceased.

marble cave

Caves can also surprise with their names .. The site has.

The most famous caves in the world

Reed Flute Cave, China

The Staff of the Dragon King stalactite is also very famous, it is of a very bizarre shape and giant size. He decorates the hall of the Crystal Palace. It is worth visiting such halls as the Red Threshold, the Dragon Tower, Dawn in the Lion's Grove, Pine in the Snow.

Mammoth Cave, USA

Its red limestone arches look very impressive, especially in the Broadway corridor, not far from which the rivers Styx and Echo flow. Rare species of shrimp, blind fish and crayfish live in them. Tourists love to look at the stone block here, which resembles the profile of George Washington's mother. And also everyone is not averse to leaving their business cards and autographs in a special Hall of Records. American scientists discovered a human mummy in this cave. However, this cave is not the most famous on the planet.

The most famous cave in the world: Fingal's Cave

The cave owes its name to a Scottish poet named James MacPherson. The legend says that the giant Fingal built a dam to connect Ireland with Scotland, along which the giant passed into his dwelling, while Fingal was fast asleep before the upcoming battle with him. The hero's wife, however, showed ingenuity and, pointing to her husband, said that it was Fingal's infant son dozing. A huge enemy, imagining the size of the father of this baby, gave a tear in horror, destroying the dam. The second justification for this name was the fact that the large hall of the cave whimsically repeats the sounds of the surf, and it seems to sing. These enchanting sounds prompted Mendelssohn to write the famous overture "The Hebrides, or Fingal's Cave." It also strikes with intricately woven basalt columns that have six and octagonal shapes.
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The largest caves on the planet amaze with their grandeur, which can bewitch anyone. It is terrible to look into the trap of a huge cave. It seems that it is impossible to get out of this place back. This mysterious separate world of silence and silence is able to suck any careless tourist into its expanses.

Expeditions to explore the most difficult caves began in the 18th century. A well-known scientist at that time, I. Nagel, led the largest expedition to the caves of Moravia. During the expedition, the group reached a depth of 138 m.

A large amount of knowledge about underground depths was introduced by M. Lomonosov. Explanation of the chemical nature of caves - Lomonosov's theory. The movement of air at the depth of caves and the formation of stalactites and stalagmites, as well as the formation of ice in caves - this knowledge is the merit of our scientist.

Absolutely all caves are different from each other, but they can be safely attributed to the list of the most unusual places on Earth. The presence of wells, lakes, grottoes, waterfalls and glaciers are the elements of the caves that create the overall picture and make certain differences.

For centuries, water erodes rocks and creates huge labyrinths of mysterious and powerful caves. What are the largest caves on earth?

We bring to your attention the 7 most huge caves Earth.

Krubera cave.

Kruber's Cave is also called Crow's Cave. She is one of the most deep caves on the planet. Voronya is the only cave that has a depth of more than 2 km. It is located in Georgia. The entrance to its open spaces is located at an altitude of 2249 m. The vertical cave has many wells that are connected big amount stiles. At a depth of about 200 meters, the cave is divided into 2 branches. The main branch - has a depth of 2197 m. Nekuibyshevskaya - 1698 m.

The Krubera Cave was discovered in 1960 by the expedition of the Research Institute named after. Bagrationi. Crow Cave has seen a huge number of different expeditions and scientific research.

Jeita caves.

The Lebanese great caves are among the most magical caves on the ground. The upper cave was discovered in 1836, the lower one much later - in 1958. The length of the cave is 2250 m.
Jeita is very popular among tourists, who have the opportunity to visit only part of the cave 700 m deep, the rest of the path is blocked. The upper cave has 3 halls and special underground reservoirs. Stalagmites and stalactites also adorn the view of the Lebanese cave.

Mammoth Cave.

The Mammoth karst cave system is located in Kentucky (United States).

Built there national park, and the cave is its landmark and pride. Mammoth Cave is considered the longest cave in the world (588 km). Mammoth Cave has 226 underground passages, as well as more than 20 halls and 25 deep mines.

By the way, the name "Mammoth" is not associated with any surname or with mammoths. "Mammoth" means "huge".

It is known that Mammoth Cave was formed more than 10 million years ago. The Indians knew about its existence. This fact was confirmed by scientists after Indian cemeteries with mummies were discovered in the cave.

Caves of Crystals.

The Crystal Cave is the most unusual and amazing cave in the whole world. It is located in Mexico and is unique because she is filled giant crystals from plaster. The largest crystal was discovered at the beginning of the 20th century. It is 11 meters long and weighs 54 tons. The temperature inside the cave exceeds +50°C at 100% humidity.

The cave was discovered in 1910 by Mexican miners. " Ice Palace"- the most famous hall of the Crystal Caves complex. It was discovered during drilling operations in 2009. Oddly enough, with its depth of 150 m, the hall is not filled with water.

Dragon Caves.

The Dragon Caves have amazing beauty and are the main mystery of Mallorca. Exploration of these caves began in 1886.
The caves are 1250 m long, equipped with special lighting equipment and a huge auditorium, which was built for various shows and concerts. Musical performances take place on boats on Lake Martel.

Sondong cave.

The largest cave in the world is located in Vietnam. They learned about it in 1991, and in 2009 a group of British scientists began a deep study of Shondong. The cave with the highest and widest passages has a total volume of 38 million m³.
In Shondong sprouting their own jungle (the height of the trees reaches 3 meters) and the river flows with a fairly fast current.

Optimistic cave.

The cave is located on the territory of Ukraine and reaches a length of more than 200 km. The cave, discovered in 1966, has not been fully explored. In the cave, in addition to stalactites, there are formations resembling the crystals of the Crystal Cave in Mexico. However, the crystals of the Optimistic Cave are much smaller.
The name "Optimistic" cave was due to the fact that, contrary to the forecasts of other scientists, Lviv speleologists considered the cave one of the largest in the USSR. As a result, their assumptions were confirmed.

Most large caves- complex systems of passages and halls, often with a total length of up to several tens of kilometers. Caves are an object of study for speleology. Speleotourists make a significant contribution to the study of caves.

Caves according to their origin can be divided into five groups: tectonic, erosional, ice, volcanic and, finally, the most large group- karst. Caves in the entrance part, with suitable morphology (horizontal spacious entrance) and location (close to water), were used by ancient people as comfortable dwellings.

Caves by origin

Karst caves

Most of these caves. It is karst caves that have the greatest length and depth. Karst caves are formed due to the dissolution of rocks with water, so they are found only where soluble rocks occur: limestone, marble, dolomite, chalk, as well as gypsum and salt. Limestone, and even more so marble, dissolves very poorly with pure distilled water. The solubility increases several times if dissolved water is present in the water. carbon dioxide(and it is always present in natural water), but limestone still dissolves weakly compared to, say, gypsum or, moreover, salt. But it turns out that this has a positive effect on the formation of extended caves, since gypsum and salt caves not only quickly formed, but also quickly destroyed.

A huge role in the formation of caves is played by tectonic cracks and faults. According to the maps of the explored caves, one can very often see that the passages are confined to tectonic disturbances that can be traced on the surface. Also, for the formation of a cave, a sufficient amount of water precipitation is necessary, a successful form of relief: precipitation from large area should fall into the cave, the entrance to the cave should be located noticeably higher than the place where groundwater is discharged, etc.

A bunch of karst caves are relic systems: the water stream that formed the cave left it due to a change in relief or for more deep levels(due to lowering of the local basis of erosion - the bottom of the neighboring river valleys), or ceased to fall into the cave due to a change in the surface catchment, after which the cave goes through various phases of aging. Very often, the studied caves are small fragments of an ancient cave system, opened up by the destruction of the enclosing mountain ranges.

Evolution karst processes and their chemistry are such that often water, having dissolved minerals rocks(carbonates, sulfates), after a while deposits them on the vaults and walls of caves in the form of massive crusts up to a meter thick or more (cave marble onyx) or ensembles of mineral aggregates of caves that are special for each cave, forming stalactites, stalagmites, helictites, draperies and others specific karst mineral forms - sinter formations.

IN Lately All more caves opens in rocks traditionally considered non-karst. For example, in the sandstones and quartzites of the mesas of the tepui mountains of South America, the caves of Abismo Guy Collet with a depth of −671 m (2006), Cueva Ojos de Cristal with a length of 16 km (2009) were discovered. Apparently, these caves also have karst origin. hot tropical climate Under certain conditions, quartzite can be dissolved in water.

Another exotic example of the formation of karst caves is the very long and deepest cave in the US mainland, Lechugia Cave (and other caves in Carlsbad National Park). According to the modern hypothesis, it was formed by the dissolution of limestones by rising thermal waters saturated with sulfuric acid.

Tectonic caves

Such caves can arise in any rocks as a result of the formation of tectonic faults. As a rule, such caves are found in the sides of river valleys deeply cut into the plateau, when huge rock masses break off from the sides, forming sagging cracks ( sherlops). Seizure cracks usually converge with depth in a wedge. Most often they are covered with loose deposits from the surface of the massif, but sometimes they form rather deep vertical caves up to 100 m deep. Sherlops are widespread in Eastern Siberia. They are relatively poorly studied and probably occur quite often.

erosion caves

Caves formed in insoluble rocks due to mechanical erosion, that is, worked out by water containing grains of solid material. Often such caves are formed on the seashore under the action of the surf, but they are small. However, the formation of caves, worked out along the primary tectonic cracks by streams going underground, is also possible. Quite large (hundreds of meters long) erosional caves are known, formed in sandstones and even granites. Examples of large erosion caves can be T.S.O.D. (Touchy Sword of Damocles) Cave in gabbro (4 km/−51 m, New York), Bat Cave in gneisses (1.7 km, North Carolina), Upper Millerton Lake Cave in granites (California).

Glacial caves

Another type of glacial caves are caves formed in a glacier at the point where intraglacial and subglacial waters exit at the edge of glaciers. Meltwater in such caves can flow both along the glacier bed and over glacial ice.

A special type of glacial caves - caves formed in glaciers at the exit point of underground caves located under the glacier. thermal waters. Hot water is capable of making voluminous galleries, however, such caves do not lie in the glacier itself, but under it, since the ice melts from below. Thermal ice caves are found in Iceland, Greenland and reach considerable sizes.

Volcanic caves

These caves are formed during volcanic eruptions. The lava flow, cooling down, is covered with a solid crust, forming a lava tube, inside of which molten rock is still flowing. After the eruption has already, in fact, ended, the lava flows out of the tube from the lower end, and a cavity remains inside the tube. It is clear that lava caves lie on the very surface, and often the roof collapses. However, as it turned out, lava caves can reach very large sizes, up to 65.6 km long and 1100 m deep (Kazumura Cave, Hawaiian Islands).

In addition to lava tubes, there are vertical volcanic caves - volcanic vents.

Caves by type of host rocks

archaeological finds

Primitive people used caves all over the world as a dwelling. Even more often, animals settled in the caves. Many animals died in the cave-traps, starting from steep wells. The extremely slow evolution of caves, their constant climate, and protection from the outside world have preserved a huge number of archaeological finds to us. These are pollen of fossil plants, bones of long-extinct animals (cave bear, cave hyena, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros), rock paintings of ancient people (Kapov caves on Southern Urals, Divya in the Northern Urals, Tuzuksu in the Kuznetsk Alatau, Niah-Caves in Malaysia), tools of their labor (villages Strashnaya, Okladnikova, Kaminnaya in Altai), human remains of different cultures, including Neanderthals, up to 50-200 thousand years old (Teshik-Tash cave in Uzbekistan, Denisova cave in Altai, Cro-Magnon in France and many others).

The caves may have played the role of modern cinemas.

Water in the caves

Water, as a rule, is found in many caves, and karst caves owe their origin to it. In the caves you can find condensate films, drops, streams and rivers, lakes and waterfalls. Siphons in caves significantly complicate the passage, require special equipment and special training. Often there are underwater caves. In the entrance areas of the caves, water is often present in a frozen state, in the form of ice deposits, often very significant and perennial.

Air in the caves

In most caves, the air is bad for breathing due to natural circulation, although there are caves in which you can only be in gas masks. For example, guano deposits can poison the air. However, in the vast majority natural caves air exchange with the surface is quite intense. The reasons for air movement are most often the temperature difference in the cave and on the surface, so the direction and intensity of circulation depend on the season and weather conditions. In large cavities, the movement of air is so intense that it turns into wind. For this reason, air draft is one of the important features when looking for new caves.

cave deposits

Holy ascetics who lived in caves:

• “And Lot went out of Segor and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to dwell in Segor. And he dwelt in a cave, and his two daughters with him” (Genesis 19:30)
• “And the Prophet Elijah went into the cave there and spent the night in it” (1 Kings 19.9)

cave houses

Many peoples made dwellings in caves, as they were easy to keep clean and maintain a constant temperature throughout the year.

• Sassi Di Matera

Healing caves

In many medical institutions there are rooms called "salt caves". The walls are lined with potash salt bricks, and patients spend some time in them, listening to music and getting a healing effect.

Entertaining caves

Horror caves are known as a part of amusement parks, cafes and bars, finished under a cave.

underground cavities

In addition to caves that have access to the surface and are accessible for direct study by humans, there are closed underground cavities in the earth's crust. The deepest underground cavity (2952 meters) was discovered by drilling on the coast of Cuba. In the Rhodope Mountains, an underground cavity was discovered at a depth of 2400 meters while drilling. On Black Sea coast in Gagra, underground voids were discovered by drilling at a depth of up to 2300 meters.

Notes

1. Maruashvili, 1969; TSB; Schukin, 1980; Monkhouse, 1970.
2. Mineral aggregates of karst caves
3. “On the silicate bradykarst of the tropical zone”, Maksimovich G.A. // Hydrogeology and Karstology. Issue. 7. Perm, 1975: 5-14.
4. History of the Sylphuric Acid Theory of Speleogenesis in the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico, 2000.
5. OTHER CAVES , Compiled by: Bob Gulden.
6. Save Millerton Lake Cave
7. Images from the Millerton Lakes Cave System
8. Reynaud L., Moreau L. Moulins Glaciaires des Temperes et Froids de 1986 a 1994 (Mer de Glace et Groenland). Actes du 3e Symposium International Cavites Glaciaires et Cryokarst en Regions Polaires et de Haute Montagne, Chamonix-France, 1er-6.XI.1994. Annales Litteraires de l'universite de Besancon, N 561, serie Geographie, N 34, Besancon, 1995, p. 109-113.
9. Krubera Cave: Profile. Ukrainian Speleological Association (1999-2010) // speleogenesis.info. Archived from the original on November 27, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
10. Worlds deepest caves, Compiled by: Bob Gulden
11. I. Kudryavtseva, D. Lury Geography / S.T. Ismailova. - Moscow: Avanta +, 1994. - T. 3. - S. 472. - 638 p. - ISBN 5-86529-015-0
12. Message to the caving mailing list CML#13657 , Yu.Kasyan, 09/10/2012.
13. Message to the caving mailing list CML#13648 , P. Rudko, 08/28/2012.
14. Message to the caving mailing list CML#10132 , A. Shelepin, 09/18/2007.
15. Worlds longest caves, Compiled by: Bob Gulden
16. Paleolithic of Altai
17. Prehistoric caves named as first cinema halls
18. Wind in the Caves, A.L. Shelepin, 1995, KSK Library