Posted on 04/30/2009 10:55:52 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Members of a British expedition believe they have discovered the world's largest cave passage in the heart of the Vietnamese jungle.
Measuring more than 650 ft high and almost 500 ft wide, Hang Son Doong (Mountain River Cave) is believed to be almost twice the size of the current record holder.
The British team, which was assisted by representatives of the Hanoi University of Science, said that it believes that Hang Son Doong is larger than the Deer Cave in Sarawak, Malaysia, which at more than 100 yards high and 90 yards wide is currently recognised as the world's largest cave passage.
The expedition involved five days exploring the cave in Vietnam's Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in mid-April.
"It is a truly amazing sized cave and one of the most significant discoveries by a British caving team," said Adam Spillane, a member of the 13-man expedition. "The complete survey is at present being drawn up but initial estimates show the main passage to be 200 metres (656 ft) high in places and possibly greater in some sections.
"Much of the passage width is over 100 metres (328 ft) but certain sections are over 150 metres wide (492 ft)."
The team has returned to the UK to analyse its findings.
Mr Spillane said that the entrance to the cave was first found by a local man, Ho Khanh, in 1991. "Khanh has been a guide for the team in many expeditions to the jungle to explore caves and this year he took a team to the cave which had never been entered before by anyone including local jungle men," he said.
"This was because the entrance which is small by Vietnamese cave standards and emitted a frightful wind and noise which was due to a large underground
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The thought takes me back to 'The Big Room' in Sennit Cave in West Virginia--we could not see the light from the carbide lamps on the crew at the other end...and it is relatively small by comparison.
Wow. Big place.
WOW, big enough for an indoor sports venue.
I bet there are a long of Viet Cong hiding in there.
john kerry has been there...spent Christmas eve there I believe it was...remembered it clearly.
Cave exploring sponsored by the Vietnamese Proctolgy Association.
Didn’t Mr. Spillane have a successful career as Mickey Spillane, the creator of Mike Hammer? Who else could be named Spillane. Just joshing.
Huh. Guess I missed that one back in ‘68.
TC
Bump for reference.
Then how is it that "the British discovered it"?
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