National Geographic: Mysteries Underground (1992) Movie Script
It all begins with water and rock.
As water seeks its level,
it becomes acidic.
And when it flows over limestone,
it etches a path into the rock.
Given eons of time,
water will burrow and carve,
with incredible force,
the veins and arteries of planet Earth
So the underworld of caves is born.
And after torrents have done
their work,
patient drops do more wonders
in a million years or so.
Look now on a landscape no one dreamed
existed just a few years ago.
Here are bizarre and
fantastic treasures that stun the eye
and strain the imagination.
Here is discovery and danger.
Here is adventure.
In New Mexico, members of a
National Geographic Society expedition
explore the world's newest
and most exotic major cave.
They are following one of man's
most ancient imperatives
to see and understand the unknown.
Join us now as we embark on
an extraordinary journey
deep into the earth
to confront MYSTERIES UNDERGROUND.
In the Guadalupe Mountains
of southern New Mexico,
an awesome giant has lain hidden
for a million years.
Sometimes, in the desert silence,
the monster could be heard breathing.
The sound came from a yawning chasm
in the rocks.
In 1986 a trio of weekend explorers
broke through a layer of rubble
and discovered a new cave
only a few miles
from famous Carlsbad Cavern.
Although the cave entrance lay inside
Carlsbad Caverns National Park,
park officials allowed qualified
cavers to explore it.
One of them was Rick Bridges,
an oil and gas prospector.
Now Bridges leads
a hand-picked team of experts,
like rock climber Dave Jones,
on the 25th expedition to Lechuguilla.
You got the survey gear, Anne?
Research geologist Kiym Cunningham
will handle the science studies
for the expedition.
Nuclear test engineer Anne Strait
is an expert
in surveying and mapping caves.
And specialist cameraman from England,
Sid Perou,
will be the first to document
Lechuguilla on motion picture film.
The journey begins
with a deceptively ordinary hike.
The cave is named after a desert plant
that grows in this harsh,
dry environment-Lechuguilla-Spanish
for little lettuce.
Forty people will support the venture,
including two support teams
to pack in supplies
and batteries for photographic lights.
On high rope.
We tend to have this feeling that
the surface of the earth
is the life of the earth.
But we're just this small,
thin little shell that we choose
to call our world,
and beneath it there's an entire realm
that we know very little about.
And we can, if we choose,
enter that realm and
we can learn something from it.
I will never go to the moon,
but I can go to a cave
the nobody else has been to
and have the same elation
of exploration in the sense
that I have gone where
no one's gone before.
Bombs away.
I would like to think that
had I lived in another time
I would have been an explorer.
You know,
had I lived in the late 1700s,
I would have wanted to know what
was across the Appalachian Mountains.
If I'd been around when Lewis
and Clark went to the coast,
I'd liked to have gone with them,
you know.
And I think most people that cave
at this level and do this kind
of exploration feel that way.
Here, Bridges and his companions
excavated to break into Lechuguilla
for the first time.
Now the entrance is protected
by a lockable hatchway.
Through this tiny aperture
the cave breathes
blowing air out or sucking
it in to equalize with the
barometric pressure above ground.
Winds up to 60 miles
an hour howl out of here,
hinting at the vast underworld below.
Today, this is Lechuguilla's
only known entrance,
and there may have never been another.
For a million years
this place has lain undisturbed.
In a real sense,
it is a primordial world,
untouched by all
but microscopic forms of life.
On rope!
It's a long ways down.
See you guys on the bottom.
Dave Jones starts down
the 150 foot pit
called Boulder Falls
It was here
that the first explorers realized
what a vast place they had discovered.
As you progress down,
it gets steeper and steeper
and pretty soon you're free hanging,
but your feet
are still against the rock
And all of a sudden you rappel
by this little ledge
and there's no more rock.
There's nothing in any direction.
Beyond the base of the pit
the cave branches off
in all directions.
Only computer imagery can portray
this labyrinth.
After the May 1986 exploration
the cave was known to be 700 feet deep
and more than half a mile long.
Today the system totals 60 miles
and plummets more than 1,600 feet.
Twisting capillaries and veins pierce
the earth in all directions.
This is a gigantic maze
in three dimensions,
defying conventional ideas
of direction and scale.
Footprints remain forever
in this fragile environment.
Plastic ribbons keep cavers
on main trails.
Expeditions into Lechuguilla have been
likened to exploring Everest
only in reverse.
The team is headed for Base Camp
still hours away.
The trail leads on into inky blackness
Often they traverse chambers so vast
the cave walls are barely discernible.
Gypsum crystals sparkle
along the route.
Now, cavers encounter Lechuguilla's
fantastic decorations
for the first time.
Helictites and gypsum flowers
extrude from the walls
fragile gardens that have taken
centuries to blossom,
as minerals have been squeezed from
the rocks like toothpaste from a tube.
Beauty abounds.
These jewels of the underground
are exquisitely delicate needles
of selenite.
With the constant maneuvering up down
and through the cave's
difficult terrain,
become painful burdens.
Always, in Lechuguills,
danger is not far away.
Okay, on three. One, two, three.
In 1991 seasoned caver Emily Mobley
slipped and broke her leg
while working on a surveying expedition
in the cave's western sector.
A mile and a half from the entrance,
this accident would trigger the largest
and most publicized cave rescue
in U.S. history.
A hundred experienced cavers
summoned to the scene
would labor four arduous days
to bring her to safety.
The bond of comradeship that unites
the caving community was seldom more
evident than during this emergency.
Every caver knows and instinctively
responds to the code of the underground
that only cavers can save
and protect each other.
After almost four hours,
the expedition reaches Lake Lebarge,
the first sizeable body of water to be
discovered in this branch of Lechuguilla.
Beautiful!
One of the greatest sights in caving,
isn't it?
Yes. Fantastic.
Is this Lake Lebarge?
Yeah.
Lebarge Borehole looks easier now.
Beautiful!
On rope!
the lake completely blocks
the way ahead.
Cavers had to wade it until they
found a detour
tricky, but possible.
Well, I think of particular moves
like dancing around the edge of Lebarge
as almost a ballet,
an underground ballet.
I know where my footholds are;
I know where my handholds are.
I know if I hit them just right
and move just right
some of them are kind of dynamic
in so much as you leave one handhold
while you're going for
the next foothold.
And if you do that just right
and you have your pack balanced
just right,
you flow through it real smoothly.
And so I think
it's very much like doing a dance,
a very intricate dance.
And you want to do it perfectly,
you know,
and it's very beautiful when you do.
Deeper into the cave,
mineral formations
become more fantastic and delicate.
Cavers must move among them
with great care.
Spikes of aragonite,
one form of calcium carbonate,
grow in fragile bushes.
The gentlest touch could damage them.
There is infinite contrast here.
The now famous Chandelier Ballroom
is one of caving's classic beauty spots
Plumes of gypsum sprout
from the ceiling,
some as long as 20 feet
the most dazzling examples
of their type ever found.
Utter silence pervades Lechuguilla.
The only sound is made by the intruder
In the constant 68-degree temperature
and high humidity,
dehydration is always a threat.
Anybody else need any hot water?
for some, the notion of life
with almost a quarter mile
of rock overhead
can be oppressive, even terrifying.
But cavers like Bridges
relish the experience.
It's almost like coming back to home
after you've been gone for a while.
It's a very comfortable feeling to me,
particularly in that particular cave.
And you know it's a sense of isolation
The world becomes very simple
Here there is no day or night.
If they ignore the time,
cavers tend to stay awake,
and sleep,
for longer and longer periods.
In Lechuguilla Cave,
there is little evidence of life.
But this is rare.
Many caves harbor a hidden kingdom
of creatures, dominated by bats.
Bats thrive in darkness.
They navigate not by sight,
but by subtle patterns
of reflected sound.
Some caves are home to millions
of bats,
the greatest concentration
of mammals anywhere.
Their nitrogen-rich droppings,
or guano,
are harvested as a fertilizer.
Large deposits produce a toxic gas,
which can be lethal.
Mountains of bat guano support
the intricate food chain underground.
Sometimes, an injured bat, or a baby,
falls into the guano
and itself becomes food.
Within minutes the bat is reduced
to a skeleton.
Abundant underground, the cave cricket
Crickets spend much of their time
gathering food outside their caves,
but inside they perform
a vital role as scavengers.
In mute testament to their environment
fish have evolved here without eyes.
The salamander has dispensed
with eyes, too,
and has no need of skin pigment
in a world without sunlight.
People have probably always found
shelter in caves.
Thousands of years ago,
as much of the world still lay
in the grip of the last Ice Age,
prehistoric hunters left spectacular
evidence behind them.
The human spirit was born
and nurtured here,
its expression etched
on walls of stone.
By the early 20th century
most people lived elsewhere.
But science and curiosity drove some
to explore deeper underground.
Magnesium flares lit the way,
filling dark voids with light.
Geologists squeezed into
subterranean chambers
seeking to understand
their origin and structure.
And soon the ancient lure
of caves turned to profit.
Tourists went underground.
Then and now,
humans have been compelled
to seek out caves,
and to combat the gloom
with gay defiance.
In the United States,
New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns
was declared a national park in 1930.
But natural wonders were not enough.
Carlsbad and other caves promoted
all sorts of attractions,
some a bit farfetched.
The time will come
when some master musician
in the Carlsbad Cavern will
be able to create s symphony in stone
Many parts of the world
are known for caves.
Because most lie on limestone bedrock,
the soil is often thin and life is hard
So it has often been
in the remote uplands of Kentucky.
But the automobile brought
a new source of wealth
city folks, eager for amusement.
Everyone who owned a cave
hung up a sign.
Each was touted as being bigger
and better than the others.
The so-called Cave Wars
spurred bitter feuds and even violence
Crystal Cave belonged
to the Collins family,
but it was too far
from the beaten path to prosper.
Thirty-seven-year-old Floyd,
one of the Collins boys,
was determined to find a cave closer
to the highway.
He set off alone on a
cold winter morning in January 1925
and squeezed into a narrow,
twisting crack in the earth,
never before explored.
A hundred feet or so into
the tight passageway
Floyd dislodges a rock that falls
on his leg and pains his left foot.
Every detail of this fateful mishap
will soon be known throughout the world
Struggling to free himself,
Floyed becomes more tightly wedged.
His arms are pinned at his sides.
He can do nothing but shout for help.
Twenty-four hours later
Floyd's cries are heard.
A younger brother, Homer,
manages to reach him.
Coffee and sandwiches revive Floyd,
but no amount of tugging or pulling
will set him free.
Would-be rescuers knock down more
dirt and rocks.
Soon more help arrives,
but rescue efforts are clumsy
and disorganized.
Curious onlookers begin to gather.
They become restive and quarrelsome.
A week goes by.
Floyd is still alive
and the crowed swells to thousand.
It becomes a carnival.
Souvenirs are sold
and moonshiners arrive on the scene.
It's hard to maintain order
and the National Guard is summoned.
Skeets Miller
a 21-year-old newspaper reporter,
braves the tortuous passage seven times
to comfort Floyd
and describe his plight.
Miller takes down food and drink
and an electric light bulb
to keep Floyd warm.
In bitter cold and rain,
little more can be done for him.
When a cave-in blocks the passage,
a rescue shaft is begun.
People all over the country
join Floyd's family in prayer.
Floyd's brothers expect the worst.
Rescuers finally reach him
on the 18th day.
It is too late.
Floyd has been dead for some time.
The crowd goes home.
The public is soon interested
in other things.
It takes two months
to recover the body.
The rock that trapped Floyd
was not a boulder,
but a mere 27-pound stone,
shaped like a leg of lamb.
His death left a legacy of fear
of the dark,
mysterious underground
that haunts many to this day.
Today, there are about 16,000 devotees
of caving in the U.S.
Here, where Tennessee, Alabama,
and Georgia meet,
the countryside is studded
by deep pits
vertical caves
the delight of weekend enthusiasts.
Nine-year-old Leah Brown
holds a world speed record
for rope climbing.
Her partner, Avis Van Swearingen,
also holds a climbing record
for women over the age of 60.
With skill and courage
they suspend their lives
on a slender thread.
We call that rope the nylon highway
because it takes us
to wonderful places
and new parts of the cave,
and it's the only way you can get there
If I'm the first one down a drop,
and I have been the first,
the very first person
to ever go down a drop...
if we can't really tell
if the rope reaches the bottom,
the person who goes down first
wears their climbing gear, too,
so that you can put your climbing gear
on the rope and come up.
Also, we put a knot at the bottom
of that rope
so we can't rappel off the end of it,
which has happened to people.
I like the deep pits,
because when they're deep,
you get to go fast more.
That's why I like the deep pits,
because the short ones
you don't get to go fast very long.
The first time I did it in a pit,
it was only a 90-foot pit
and I didn't get scared.
I don't get scared very easily.
I like going fast.
When I go down fast,
the floor is real tiny and then
it starts getting bigger and bigger,
and I like to watch that.
An unfettered commitment
to their sport
compels cavers to seek new thrills
in undiscovered places.
For some, the quest
for adventure knows no boundary.
The Austrian Alps.
A fifth of the world's deepest caves
are located here, high in the mountains
These ice caves are 5,000 feet
above sea level.
They are natural deep freezes
where ice remains, even in hot summers
Here, geological time is condensed.
We can witness the growth
of ice formations
in short periods of months or years,
which in their stone counterparts
would take centuries.
From year to year these caves
are never the same.
As they thaw and freeze again,
the fantastic ice formations
are ever changing.
Few places on earth are more beautiful
or more treacherous,
with perhaps one exception.
Some cavers have merged their love of
the unknown with a passion for diving,
venturing into a bizarre world
underground and under water.
Originally formed above sea level,
these caves became submerged
about 10,000 years ago
as the last Ice Age retreated.
They are now 70 feet
beneath the surface.
Underwater caves are deathtraps
for the inexperienced.
But, from time to time,
tempting fate can have
astounding rewards.
In 1990, when exploring
a submerged tunnel off
the Mediterranean coast of France,
a professional diver surfaced
in a hidden chamber.
He found a treasure chest of art,
perhaps 18,000 years old.
Paintings and engravings depict
animals that roamed southern Europe
before the last great ice sheets melted
Some experts question the authenticity
of the art,
but close examination is impossible.
Cosquer Cave is a place
of haunting mystery.
To protect it, the cave is now sealed
by order of the French government.
In time a new entrance may be built
and the truth known.
An expanse of sinkholes and
depressions pockmark
south central Kentucky
where, beneath the surface,
the limestone is riddled with caves.
They are everywhere,
an integral part of the landscape.
This is Floyd Collins country,
and the contest to attract
the tourist dollar still rages on.
The star attraction is Mammoth
the world's longest cave.
A national park since 1941,
the cave now draws more
than half a million visitors a year.
Back in the 1800s
tour guides here were
often black slaves.
One of them, Stephen Bishop,
became perhaps the greatest caver
of them all.
On his own,
with little more than a lamp,
a rope, and a sketchbook,
Bishop explores the depths
of Mammoth Cave.
He creates a surprisingly accurate map
of this complex underground maze.
Deep in the cave
Bishop is confronted by a gaping void
that came to be known
as Bottomless Pit.
Beyond, Bishop explores regions
that had never been visited in his time
But in these remote reaches
he hinds evidence
that someone has preceded him.
Some archeologists believe
that Stephen Bishop
may have also encountered one
of Mammoth's most compelling mysteries
Trapped under a boulder
are the ancient remains
of a human being.
Not for another century would
the mummified body be rediscovered
and then as the technology
became available,
removed from beneath
the six-ton boulder.
A sensation in its time,
the mysterious body would be
on public display for years
and given the name Lost John.
Two to three thousand years ago
this man was digging around
the base of a heavy rock
when it dislodged and crushed him.
What was he doing here?
How did he get here?
No one believed that ancient humans
could have ventured this far
into the forbidding depths
of Mammoth Cave.
Today, new evidence helps
to answer these questions.
Archeologist Ken Tankersley
has spent years
investigating the traces
of ancient humans in Mammoth.
Armed with cane reeds collected
near the park,
Tankersley simulates
the methods prehistoric
explorers would have used here.
We have long known that human beings
lived near the entrance of caves.
But Lost John suggested
that prehistoric people
had gone far into Mammoth
perhaps two day's travel.
Was this possible?
At first Tankersley himself had doubts
I'm always amazed when I think about
what it takes for us to go into a cave.
We wear a hard hat;
we wear out caving lamp,
whether it's electric or carbide;
and we carry two sources
of back-up light.
We wear enough clothing
to ward off hypothermia.
These people wore virtually nothing
loin cloths at best.
Probably most frequently,
based on what we've seen in the cave
in terms of human remains,
these people were naked,
carrying nothing but cane reed torches
The reed torches were the only light
source available to ancient humans.
They produce surprisingly
efficient illumination
and conjure ghosts
from the heavy shadows.
Their daring was incredible.
For humans, light is life in a cave.
But these explorers traveled
up to 12 miles
with nothing but reed torches between
them and a horrible fate.
Their pathway can be followed even now
A trail of burned torch fragments
leads Tankersley and his companions
to a cavity in the rock face.
Digging marks and a crude implement
are evidence of some kind
of activity here.
That's magnificent.
Notice the cut edge.
A primitive tool,
one of dozens found deep in the cave.
What was it used for?
Another clue:
a rich seam of selenite crystal
courses through the rock face nearby.
These findings prove that
prehistoric people were engaged
in widespread mining of crystals
throughout the cave.
The scale of the operation
was staggering.
Tons of material were removed.
The mining continued without
interruption for over a thousand years
The ancient miners took selenite
and other minerals from the cave.
But what they were used
for remains a mystery
as medicines, or ornaments,
or for use in rituals?
Perhaps all three.
Just as mysteriously,
around the time of the birth of Christ
the mining suddenly ceased.
As yet no one knows why.
All that remains is abundant evidence
that they once were here,
driven by needs and desires
we may never understand.
To our right, down below,
is the famous Bottomless Pit.
For many, many years lights were not
sufficient to reach the bottom.
Visiting Mammoth today
is a journey through time.
But as they are guided
along comfortable tourist trails,
few visitors can imagine the tortuous
passageways that lie beyond them.
not knowing the true depth of the pit
or what lay on the other side.
Reaching the other side,
they were surprised to find an avenue
over there and more cave.
This opened up the doorway to the vast
unknown mileage that
we all Mammoth Cave.
Mammoth Cave Ridge skirts
the Houchins Valley.
On the other side, beneath Flint Ridge
lies another cave network,
once shrouded in mystery.
Here, 40 years ago,
one of the great exploits
of cave exploration began.
In the 1950s a group of weekend
adventurers began an intensive probe
into the secrets of Flint Ridge.
There had long been talk of a vast
underground system
that might link all
the caves in the area.
It began as an exciting pastime.
It became a grueling obsession.
Over the years hundreds of
men and women took part.
There were untold yards
of muddy crawlways.
There were pits and crevices and mazes
from which there seemed no escape.
Flint ridge developed its own
colorful place names: the Corkscrew,
Shower Shaft, Agony Avenue.
But the cave grew,
until Flint Ridge alone
was pushed to nearly 90 miles.
And if it could be connected
to Mammoth,
then this was the underground Everest
by far the longest cave in the world.
In the summer of 1972
a team entered Flint Ridge to probe
a tantalizing passage
that led toward Mammoth.
It took seven hours to reach the end
of the known passage.
Then they tackled what would be called
the Tight Spot.
It seemed impenetrable.
But one of the team had a knack
for narrow places
Pat Crowther a computer programmer
and mother of two.
Well, it never occurred to anyone
to try to go through that place.
It was a crazy place to even think
that you could get your body into.
The Tight Sport was a very tiny,
vertical crevice out the bottom
of a small indentation in the floor.
And if you just casually looked down
into the hole and saw that crack,
you would say no one could
possibly fit in there.
Somehow Crowther squirmed through.
Six weeks later,
miles beyond where anyone
had gone before,
a chilling but significant discovery
was made.
In a mud bank were the initials P.H.,
scratched there by Pete Hanson,
a long-dead tour guide.
He could have come here only
from the Mammoth Cave side.
Carpenter Richard Zopf
was in the group
and recalls the impact
of the discovery.
We had the feeling that we had found
...the passage that was going
to take us into Mammoth Cave,
but we hadn't done it.
We seen virtually a mile of passage
but we didn't know
exactly where it went.
And we plugged along
and we plodded along
and we surveyed and we surveyed
and we surveyed.
Ten days later the group tried again,
reaching what they now called
Hanson's Lost River in nine hours.
Excitement and exhaustion dominated
the thoughts of leader John Wilcox.
The worst thing we feared was that
the passage would descent
so that the water would come clear
to the ceiling,
and it sure looked like that
was what was happening.
The water was getting
deeper and deeper
and the ceiling was coming down.
We're getting bent over,
scrunching our backs up
against the ceiling,
trying to keep from getting
our chests wet.
And it was getting so wet that I told
the rest of the party to wait here...
I'm going to look ahead a little bit.
Because I know if I get completely wet
I can get out of the cave,
but I wasn't sure everybody else could
And just go as far as
I can and trying very carefully
not to get my chest wet and not to put
my light out and so forth.
I don't have a good sense of the time
but John only went a few feet,
went ahead for 30 seconds.
And then there was a pause
and it's like:
What's happening, John?
And John says:
You know the passage is opening up!
And, well, you know:
'Should we come ahead?'
From that low point the passage
just immediately opens
into the huge Echo River passage...
and eventually my eyes adjusted enough
I could begin to see a wall clear
across the passage,
a hundred feet away perhaps.
And there was a bright, shining,
horizontal line along the wall,
which is something
you don't see in a cave.
You don't see any straight lines.
And it had these vertical lines
underneath
and I realized that was a handrail.
We had come out on a tourist trail!
All of sudden John shouted:
I see a tourist trail!
And those words just
electrified the party.
It was kind of like
someone yelling Fire! in a theater.
Everybody just surged forward...
...and we realized that
we had made the connection.
Achieving the dream of decades,
they had connected two great
subterranean systems.
Today, it is a cave with 340 miles
of passageways.
It's one of these, you know,
complete victories that
you don't often achieve in life.
Usually things are shades of gray
in your professional work
or your personal relations with
other people or whatever.
In climbing a mountain,
sometimes you have a clear-cut victory
Either you reached the top
or you didn't.
And this was one clear-cut victory
in my life where,
by golly,
we went in the Flint Ridge side
and we came out the Mammoth Cave side
It was a strange and lonely victory.
After a grim struggle in the dark,
subterranean river,
they emerged in Mammoth Cave
at one in the morning.
Not even a watchman
was there to greet them
as they trudged into
one of the most famous
tourist landmarks underground
the Snowball Dining Room.
And they would complete
their historic trek
with sublime ease
riding to the surface in an elevator.
There was no fanfare,
no waiting reporters.
But they were still overjoyed.
Like all cavers, in victory or defeat,
they were used to being on their own.
Beneath the New Mexican desert,
the National Geographic expedition
to Lechuguilla
Begins its second week underground.
The cave's beauty is now legendary,
but there is more to discover here.
High on a hill deep within the heart
of the cave, a mystery unfolds.
Sulfur is prevalent here and
in other regions of the cave.
And tiny bacteria are found
in these deposits along
with fungi that feed on them.
In turn, the bacteria may feed
on the sulfur,
thriving in eternal darkness.
Evidence indicates an unusual genesis
for Lechuguilla.
As hydrogen sulfide rose from below,
it mixed with oxygen in water or air,
forming sulfuric acid.
This potent chemistry gradually
ate through the limestone,
creating the cave from the bottom up.
Lechuguilla's vulnerability
to human impact
may preclude it from ever becoming
a public show cave.
A profound respect for the cave
is shared by most cavers
and severely enforced.
Special shoes are worn for
traversing formations where boots
may mar exquisite flowstone.
Stalagmites of calcite line the shores
of the Persian Gulf,
so called because of the thousands
of pearl-like formations found here.
Looking like fried eggs,
this kind of cave pearl is built up
from calcite in the water.
Another variety of cave pearl forms
when a single grain of sand
becomes coated with calcite.
Over time the relentless dripping
of water swivels the grain
and the coating becomes thicker,
like the creation of a pearl
in an oyster.
Lake Castrovalva guards
a remote corner of the cave.
The only way across is to swim.
But the conservation creed demands
that no dirty clothing soil its purity
The air and water temperatures
are the same year round 68 degrees.
Intricate stone formations
border the edge of the lake,
slowly deposited by waters rich
in calcite.
For eons these exotic shores
have been still and silent
calm until now.
Light on the station.
The primary function of any expedition
is to explore and survey the cave
to produce a detailed map.
Keeping accurate records is virtually
a religion for modern cavers.
Two thirty-nine, point five.
It's what separates them from earlier,
less responsible explorers underground
Plus four.
Plus four.
Finding something new is
the first great thrill of caving.
The second comes later
finding the way out.
Each night the latest survey date
are typed into the computer
to produce an updated map.
The ancient skeleton
of a ring-tailed cat.
Kiym Cunningham examines
one of the riddles of Lechuguilla.
It's a mystery. I mean, altogether
it's a mystery how he got down here.
We're a thousand feet below
the surface.
Many vertical pits and long passages
to get here.
So, he was a heck of a caver!
He evidently died right on the margin
of this old pool system here,
so I would imagine possibly
he was alive when he was down here,
came to the pool to drink.
Only source of water he could find.
And maybe the mineral content
was very high.
It was not a good pool to drink from
and that may have been what killed him
The amount of carbon dioxide
in the cave atmosphere is measured.
If the level down here
is the same as on the surface,
it could indicate other openings
yet to be discovered.
Somewhere within the cave's vast system
the air is being disturbed.
There is noticeable movement.
Still, Lechuguilla refuses to yield
its secrets easily.
It remains alien
and strangely beautiful,
a landscape from another world.
Lechugulla's wonder is a fragile thing
What man can discover,
he can easily destroy.
Most of us may never see
these enchanting caverns
and others that lie still undiscovered.
But perhaps it will be enough to know
that they are there.
Lechuguilla now consists
of almost 60 miles
of breathtaking passageways.
New discoveries continue
and there is no end in sight.
As water seeks its level,
it becomes acidic.
And when it flows over limestone,
it etches a path into the rock.
Given eons of time,
water will burrow and carve,
with incredible force,
the veins and arteries of planet Earth
So the underworld of caves is born.
And after torrents have done
their work,
patient drops do more wonders
in a million years or so.
Look now on a landscape no one dreamed
existed just a few years ago.
Here are bizarre and
fantastic treasures that stun the eye
and strain the imagination.
Here is discovery and danger.
Here is adventure.
In New Mexico, members of a
National Geographic Society expedition
explore the world's newest
and most exotic major cave.
They are following one of man's
most ancient imperatives
to see and understand the unknown.
Join us now as we embark on
an extraordinary journey
deep into the earth
to confront MYSTERIES UNDERGROUND.
In the Guadalupe Mountains
of southern New Mexico,
an awesome giant has lain hidden
for a million years.
Sometimes, in the desert silence,
the monster could be heard breathing.
The sound came from a yawning chasm
in the rocks.
In 1986 a trio of weekend explorers
broke through a layer of rubble
and discovered a new cave
only a few miles
from famous Carlsbad Cavern.
Although the cave entrance lay inside
Carlsbad Caverns National Park,
park officials allowed qualified
cavers to explore it.
One of them was Rick Bridges,
an oil and gas prospector.
Now Bridges leads
a hand-picked team of experts,
like rock climber Dave Jones,
on the 25th expedition to Lechuguilla.
You got the survey gear, Anne?
Research geologist Kiym Cunningham
will handle the science studies
for the expedition.
Nuclear test engineer Anne Strait
is an expert
in surveying and mapping caves.
And specialist cameraman from England,
Sid Perou,
will be the first to document
Lechuguilla on motion picture film.
The journey begins
with a deceptively ordinary hike.
The cave is named after a desert plant
that grows in this harsh,
dry environment-Lechuguilla-Spanish
for little lettuce.
Forty people will support the venture,
including two support teams
to pack in supplies
and batteries for photographic lights.
On high rope.
We tend to have this feeling that
the surface of the earth
is the life of the earth.
But we're just this small,
thin little shell that we choose
to call our world,
and beneath it there's an entire realm
that we know very little about.
And we can, if we choose,
enter that realm and
we can learn something from it.
I will never go to the moon,
but I can go to a cave
the nobody else has been to
and have the same elation
of exploration in the sense
that I have gone where
no one's gone before.
Bombs away.
I would like to think that
had I lived in another time
I would have been an explorer.
You know,
had I lived in the late 1700s,
I would have wanted to know what
was across the Appalachian Mountains.
If I'd been around when Lewis
and Clark went to the coast,
I'd liked to have gone with them,
you know.
And I think most people that cave
at this level and do this kind
of exploration feel that way.
Here, Bridges and his companions
excavated to break into Lechuguilla
for the first time.
Now the entrance is protected
by a lockable hatchway.
Through this tiny aperture
the cave breathes
blowing air out or sucking
it in to equalize with the
barometric pressure above ground.
Winds up to 60 miles
an hour howl out of here,
hinting at the vast underworld below.
Today, this is Lechuguilla's
only known entrance,
and there may have never been another.
For a million years
this place has lain undisturbed.
In a real sense,
it is a primordial world,
untouched by all
but microscopic forms of life.
On rope!
It's a long ways down.
See you guys on the bottom.
Dave Jones starts down
the 150 foot pit
called Boulder Falls
It was here
that the first explorers realized
what a vast place they had discovered.
As you progress down,
it gets steeper and steeper
and pretty soon you're free hanging,
but your feet
are still against the rock
And all of a sudden you rappel
by this little ledge
and there's no more rock.
There's nothing in any direction.
Beyond the base of the pit
the cave branches off
in all directions.
Only computer imagery can portray
this labyrinth.
After the May 1986 exploration
the cave was known to be 700 feet deep
and more than half a mile long.
Today the system totals 60 miles
and plummets more than 1,600 feet.
Twisting capillaries and veins pierce
the earth in all directions.
This is a gigantic maze
in three dimensions,
defying conventional ideas
of direction and scale.
Footprints remain forever
in this fragile environment.
Plastic ribbons keep cavers
on main trails.
Expeditions into Lechuguilla have been
likened to exploring Everest
only in reverse.
The team is headed for Base Camp
still hours away.
The trail leads on into inky blackness
Often they traverse chambers so vast
the cave walls are barely discernible.
Gypsum crystals sparkle
along the route.
Now, cavers encounter Lechuguilla's
fantastic decorations
for the first time.
Helictites and gypsum flowers
extrude from the walls
fragile gardens that have taken
centuries to blossom,
as minerals have been squeezed from
the rocks like toothpaste from a tube.
Beauty abounds.
These jewels of the underground
are exquisitely delicate needles
of selenite.
With the constant maneuvering up down
and through the cave's
difficult terrain,
become painful burdens.
Always, in Lechuguills,
danger is not far away.
Okay, on three. One, two, three.
In 1991 seasoned caver Emily Mobley
slipped and broke her leg
while working on a surveying expedition
in the cave's western sector.
A mile and a half from the entrance,
this accident would trigger the largest
and most publicized cave rescue
in U.S. history.
A hundred experienced cavers
summoned to the scene
would labor four arduous days
to bring her to safety.
The bond of comradeship that unites
the caving community was seldom more
evident than during this emergency.
Every caver knows and instinctively
responds to the code of the underground
that only cavers can save
and protect each other.
After almost four hours,
the expedition reaches Lake Lebarge,
the first sizeable body of water to be
discovered in this branch of Lechuguilla.
Beautiful!
One of the greatest sights in caving,
isn't it?
Yes. Fantastic.
Is this Lake Lebarge?
Yeah.
Lebarge Borehole looks easier now.
Beautiful!
On rope!
the lake completely blocks
the way ahead.
Cavers had to wade it until they
found a detour
tricky, but possible.
Well, I think of particular moves
like dancing around the edge of Lebarge
as almost a ballet,
an underground ballet.
I know where my footholds are;
I know where my handholds are.
I know if I hit them just right
and move just right
some of them are kind of dynamic
in so much as you leave one handhold
while you're going for
the next foothold.
And if you do that just right
and you have your pack balanced
just right,
you flow through it real smoothly.
And so I think
it's very much like doing a dance,
a very intricate dance.
And you want to do it perfectly,
you know,
and it's very beautiful when you do.
Deeper into the cave,
mineral formations
become more fantastic and delicate.
Cavers must move among them
with great care.
Spikes of aragonite,
one form of calcium carbonate,
grow in fragile bushes.
The gentlest touch could damage them.
There is infinite contrast here.
The now famous Chandelier Ballroom
is one of caving's classic beauty spots
Plumes of gypsum sprout
from the ceiling,
some as long as 20 feet
the most dazzling examples
of their type ever found.
Utter silence pervades Lechuguilla.
The only sound is made by the intruder
In the constant 68-degree temperature
and high humidity,
dehydration is always a threat.
Anybody else need any hot water?
for some, the notion of life
with almost a quarter mile
of rock overhead
can be oppressive, even terrifying.
But cavers like Bridges
relish the experience.
It's almost like coming back to home
after you've been gone for a while.
It's a very comfortable feeling to me,
particularly in that particular cave.
And you know it's a sense of isolation
The world becomes very simple
Here there is no day or night.
If they ignore the time,
cavers tend to stay awake,
and sleep,
for longer and longer periods.
In Lechuguilla Cave,
there is little evidence of life.
But this is rare.
Many caves harbor a hidden kingdom
of creatures, dominated by bats.
Bats thrive in darkness.
They navigate not by sight,
but by subtle patterns
of reflected sound.
Some caves are home to millions
of bats,
the greatest concentration
of mammals anywhere.
Their nitrogen-rich droppings,
or guano,
are harvested as a fertilizer.
Large deposits produce a toxic gas,
which can be lethal.
Mountains of bat guano support
the intricate food chain underground.
Sometimes, an injured bat, or a baby,
falls into the guano
and itself becomes food.
Within minutes the bat is reduced
to a skeleton.
Abundant underground, the cave cricket
Crickets spend much of their time
gathering food outside their caves,
but inside they perform
a vital role as scavengers.
In mute testament to their environment
fish have evolved here without eyes.
The salamander has dispensed
with eyes, too,
and has no need of skin pigment
in a world without sunlight.
People have probably always found
shelter in caves.
Thousands of years ago,
as much of the world still lay
in the grip of the last Ice Age,
prehistoric hunters left spectacular
evidence behind them.
The human spirit was born
and nurtured here,
its expression etched
on walls of stone.
By the early 20th century
most people lived elsewhere.
But science and curiosity drove some
to explore deeper underground.
Magnesium flares lit the way,
filling dark voids with light.
Geologists squeezed into
subterranean chambers
seeking to understand
their origin and structure.
And soon the ancient lure
of caves turned to profit.
Tourists went underground.
Then and now,
humans have been compelled
to seek out caves,
and to combat the gloom
with gay defiance.
In the United States,
New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns
was declared a national park in 1930.
But natural wonders were not enough.
Carlsbad and other caves promoted
all sorts of attractions,
some a bit farfetched.
The time will come
when some master musician
in the Carlsbad Cavern will
be able to create s symphony in stone
Many parts of the world
are known for caves.
Because most lie on limestone bedrock,
the soil is often thin and life is hard
So it has often been
in the remote uplands of Kentucky.
But the automobile brought
a new source of wealth
city folks, eager for amusement.
Everyone who owned a cave
hung up a sign.
Each was touted as being bigger
and better than the others.
The so-called Cave Wars
spurred bitter feuds and even violence
Crystal Cave belonged
to the Collins family,
but it was too far
from the beaten path to prosper.
Thirty-seven-year-old Floyd,
one of the Collins boys,
was determined to find a cave closer
to the highway.
He set off alone on a
cold winter morning in January 1925
and squeezed into a narrow,
twisting crack in the earth,
never before explored.
A hundred feet or so into
the tight passageway
Floyd dislodges a rock that falls
on his leg and pains his left foot.
Every detail of this fateful mishap
will soon be known throughout the world
Struggling to free himself,
Floyed becomes more tightly wedged.
His arms are pinned at his sides.
He can do nothing but shout for help.
Twenty-four hours later
Floyd's cries are heard.
A younger brother, Homer,
manages to reach him.
Coffee and sandwiches revive Floyd,
but no amount of tugging or pulling
will set him free.
Would-be rescuers knock down more
dirt and rocks.
Soon more help arrives,
but rescue efforts are clumsy
and disorganized.
Curious onlookers begin to gather.
They become restive and quarrelsome.
A week goes by.
Floyd is still alive
and the crowed swells to thousand.
It becomes a carnival.
Souvenirs are sold
and moonshiners arrive on the scene.
It's hard to maintain order
and the National Guard is summoned.
Skeets Miller
a 21-year-old newspaper reporter,
braves the tortuous passage seven times
to comfort Floyd
and describe his plight.
Miller takes down food and drink
and an electric light bulb
to keep Floyd warm.
In bitter cold and rain,
little more can be done for him.
When a cave-in blocks the passage,
a rescue shaft is begun.
People all over the country
join Floyd's family in prayer.
Floyd's brothers expect the worst.
Rescuers finally reach him
on the 18th day.
It is too late.
Floyd has been dead for some time.
The crowd goes home.
The public is soon interested
in other things.
It takes two months
to recover the body.
The rock that trapped Floyd
was not a boulder,
but a mere 27-pound stone,
shaped like a leg of lamb.
His death left a legacy of fear
of the dark,
mysterious underground
that haunts many to this day.
Today, there are about 16,000 devotees
of caving in the U.S.
Here, where Tennessee, Alabama,
and Georgia meet,
the countryside is studded
by deep pits
vertical caves
the delight of weekend enthusiasts.
Nine-year-old Leah Brown
holds a world speed record
for rope climbing.
Her partner, Avis Van Swearingen,
also holds a climbing record
for women over the age of 60.
With skill and courage
they suspend their lives
on a slender thread.
We call that rope the nylon highway
because it takes us
to wonderful places
and new parts of the cave,
and it's the only way you can get there
If I'm the first one down a drop,
and I have been the first,
the very first person
to ever go down a drop...
if we can't really tell
if the rope reaches the bottom,
the person who goes down first
wears their climbing gear, too,
so that you can put your climbing gear
on the rope and come up.
Also, we put a knot at the bottom
of that rope
so we can't rappel off the end of it,
which has happened to people.
I like the deep pits,
because when they're deep,
you get to go fast more.
That's why I like the deep pits,
because the short ones
you don't get to go fast very long.
The first time I did it in a pit,
it was only a 90-foot pit
and I didn't get scared.
I don't get scared very easily.
I like going fast.
When I go down fast,
the floor is real tiny and then
it starts getting bigger and bigger,
and I like to watch that.
An unfettered commitment
to their sport
compels cavers to seek new thrills
in undiscovered places.
For some, the quest
for adventure knows no boundary.
The Austrian Alps.
A fifth of the world's deepest caves
are located here, high in the mountains
These ice caves are 5,000 feet
above sea level.
They are natural deep freezes
where ice remains, even in hot summers
Here, geological time is condensed.
We can witness the growth
of ice formations
in short periods of months or years,
which in their stone counterparts
would take centuries.
From year to year these caves
are never the same.
As they thaw and freeze again,
the fantastic ice formations
are ever changing.
Few places on earth are more beautiful
or more treacherous,
with perhaps one exception.
Some cavers have merged their love of
the unknown with a passion for diving,
venturing into a bizarre world
underground and under water.
Originally formed above sea level,
these caves became submerged
about 10,000 years ago
as the last Ice Age retreated.
They are now 70 feet
beneath the surface.
Underwater caves are deathtraps
for the inexperienced.
But, from time to time,
tempting fate can have
astounding rewards.
In 1990, when exploring
a submerged tunnel off
the Mediterranean coast of France,
a professional diver surfaced
in a hidden chamber.
He found a treasure chest of art,
perhaps 18,000 years old.
Paintings and engravings depict
animals that roamed southern Europe
before the last great ice sheets melted
Some experts question the authenticity
of the art,
but close examination is impossible.
Cosquer Cave is a place
of haunting mystery.
To protect it, the cave is now sealed
by order of the French government.
In time a new entrance may be built
and the truth known.
An expanse of sinkholes and
depressions pockmark
south central Kentucky
where, beneath the surface,
the limestone is riddled with caves.
They are everywhere,
an integral part of the landscape.
This is Floyd Collins country,
and the contest to attract
the tourist dollar still rages on.
The star attraction is Mammoth
the world's longest cave.
A national park since 1941,
the cave now draws more
than half a million visitors a year.
Back in the 1800s
tour guides here were
often black slaves.
One of them, Stephen Bishop,
became perhaps the greatest caver
of them all.
On his own,
with little more than a lamp,
a rope, and a sketchbook,
Bishop explores the depths
of Mammoth Cave.
He creates a surprisingly accurate map
of this complex underground maze.
Deep in the cave
Bishop is confronted by a gaping void
that came to be known
as Bottomless Pit.
Beyond, Bishop explores regions
that had never been visited in his time
But in these remote reaches
he hinds evidence
that someone has preceded him.
Some archeologists believe
that Stephen Bishop
may have also encountered one
of Mammoth's most compelling mysteries
Trapped under a boulder
are the ancient remains
of a human being.
Not for another century would
the mummified body be rediscovered
and then as the technology
became available,
removed from beneath
the six-ton boulder.
A sensation in its time,
the mysterious body would be
on public display for years
and given the name Lost John.
Two to three thousand years ago
this man was digging around
the base of a heavy rock
when it dislodged and crushed him.
What was he doing here?
How did he get here?
No one believed that ancient humans
could have ventured this far
into the forbidding depths
of Mammoth Cave.
Today, new evidence helps
to answer these questions.
Archeologist Ken Tankersley
has spent years
investigating the traces
of ancient humans in Mammoth.
Armed with cane reeds collected
near the park,
Tankersley simulates
the methods prehistoric
explorers would have used here.
We have long known that human beings
lived near the entrance of caves.
But Lost John suggested
that prehistoric people
had gone far into Mammoth
perhaps two day's travel.
Was this possible?
At first Tankersley himself had doubts
I'm always amazed when I think about
what it takes for us to go into a cave.
We wear a hard hat;
we wear out caving lamp,
whether it's electric or carbide;
and we carry two sources
of back-up light.
We wear enough clothing
to ward off hypothermia.
These people wore virtually nothing
loin cloths at best.
Probably most frequently,
based on what we've seen in the cave
in terms of human remains,
these people were naked,
carrying nothing but cane reed torches
The reed torches were the only light
source available to ancient humans.
They produce surprisingly
efficient illumination
and conjure ghosts
from the heavy shadows.
Their daring was incredible.
For humans, light is life in a cave.
But these explorers traveled
up to 12 miles
with nothing but reed torches between
them and a horrible fate.
Their pathway can be followed even now
A trail of burned torch fragments
leads Tankersley and his companions
to a cavity in the rock face.
Digging marks and a crude implement
are evidence of some kind
of activity here.
That's magnificent.
Notice the cut edge.
A primitive tool,
one of dozens found deep in the cave.
What was it used for?
Another clue:
a rich seam of selenite crystal
courses through the rock face nearby.
These findings prove that
prehistoric people were engaged
in widespread mining of crystals
throughout the cave.
The scale of the operation
was staggering.
Tons of material were removed.
The mining continued without
interruption for over a thousand years
The ancient miners took selenite
and other minerals from the cave.
But what they were used
for remains a mystery
as medicines, or ornaments,
or for use in rituals?
Perhaps all three.
Just as mysteriously,
around the time of the birth of Christ
the mining suddenly ceased.
As yet no one knows why.
All that remains is abundant evidence
that they once were here,
driven by needs and desires
we may never understand.
To our right, down below,
is the famous Bottomless Pit.
For many, many years lights were not
sufficient to reach the bottom.
Visiting Mammoth today
is a journey through time.
But as they are guided
along comfortable tourist trails,
few visitors can imagine the tortuous
passageways that lie beyond them.
not knowing the true depth of the pit
or what lay on the other side.
Reaching the other side,
they were surprised to find an avenue
over there and more cave.
This opened up the doorway to the vast
unknown mileage that
we all Mammoth Cave.
Mammoth Cave Ridge skirts
the Houchins Valley.
On the other side, beneath Flint Ridge
lies another cave network,
once shrouded in mystery.
Here, 40 years ago,
one of the great exploits
of cave exploration began.
In the 1950s a group of weekend
adventurers began an intensive probe
into the secrets of Flint Ridge.
There had long been talk of a vast
underground system
that might link all
the caves in the area.
It began as an exciting pastime.
It became a grueling obsession.
Over the years hundreds of
men and women took part.
There were untold yards
of muddy crawlways.
There were pits and crevices and mazes
from which there seemed no escape.
Flint ridge developed its own
colorful place names: the Corkscrew,
Shower Shaft, Agony Avenue.
But the cave grew,
until Flint Ridge alone
was pushed to nearly 90 miles.
And if it could be connected
to Mammoth,
then this was the underground Everest
by far the longest cave in the world.
In the summer of 1972
a team entered Flint Ridge to probe
a tantalizing passage
that led toward Mammoth.
It took seven hours to reach the end
of the known passage.
Then they tackled what would be called
the Tight Spot.
It seemed impenetrable.
But one of the team had a knack
for narrow places
Pat Crowther a computer programmer
and mother of two.
Well, it never occurred to anyone
to try to go through that place.
It was a crazy place to even think
that you could get your body into.
The Tight Sport was a very tiny,
vertical crevice out the bottom
of a small indentation in the floor.
And if you just casually looked down
into the hole and saw that crack,
you would say no one could
possibly fit in there.
Somehow Crowther squirmed through.
Six weeks later,
miles beyond where anyone
had gone before,
a chilling but significant discovery
was made.
In a mud bank were the initials P.H.,
scratched there by Pete Hanson,
a long-dead tour guide.
He could have come here only
from the Mammoth Cave side.
Carpenter Richard Zopf
was in the group
and recalls the impact
of the discovery.
We had the feeling that we had found
...the passage that was going
to take us into Mammoth Cave,
but we hadn't done it.
We seen virtually a mile of passage
but we didn't know
exactly where it went.
And we plugged along
and we plodded along
and we surveyed and we surveyed
and we surveyed.
Ten days later the group tried again,
reaching what they now called
Hanson's Lost River in nine hours.
Excitement and exhaustion dominated
the thoughts of leader John Wilcox.
The worst thing we feared was that
the passage would descent
so that the water would come clear
to the ceiling,
and it sure looked like that
was what was happening.
The water was getting
deeper and deeper
and the ceiling was coming down.
We're getting bent over,
scrunching our backs up
against the ceiling,
trying to keep from getting
our chests wet.
And it was getting so wet that I told
the rest of the party to wait here...
I'm going to look ahead a little bit.
Because I know if I get completely wet
I can get out of the cave,
but I wasn't sure everybody else could
And just go as far as
I can and trying very carefully
not to get my chest wet and not to put
my light out and so forth.
I don't have a good sense of the time
but John only went a few feet,
went ahead for 30 seconds.
And then there was a pause
and it's like:
What's happening, John?
And John says:
You know the passage is opening up!
And, well, you know:
'Should we come ahead?'
From that low point the passage
just immediately opens
into the huge Echo River passage...
and eventually my eyes adjusted enough
I could begin to see a wall clear
across the passage,
a hundred feet away perhaps.
And there was a bright, shining,
horizontal line along the wall,
which is something
you don't see in a cave.
You don't see any straight lines.
And it had these vertical lines
underneath
and I realized that was a handrail.
We had come out on a tourist trail!
All of sudden John shouted:
I see a tourist trail!
And those words just
electrified the party.
It was kind of like
someone yelling Fire! in a theater.
Everybody just surged forward...
...and we realized that
we had made the connection.
Achieving the dream of decades,
they had connected two great
subterranean systems.
Today, it is a cave with 340 miles
of passageways.
It's one of these, you know,
complete victories that
you don't often achieve in life.
Usually things are shades of gray
in your professional work
or your personal relations with
other people or whatever.
In climbing a mountain,
sometimes you have a clear-cut victory
Either you reached the top
or you didn't.
And this was one clear-cut victory
in my life where,
by golly,
we went in the Flint Ridge side
and we came out the Mammoth Cave side
It was a strange and lonely victory.
After a grim struggle in the dark,
subterranean river,
they emerged in Mammoth Cave
at one in the morning.
Not even a watchman
was there to greet them
as they trudged into
one of the most famous
tourist landmarks underground
the Snowball Dining Room.
And they would complete
their historic trek
with sublime ease
riding to the surface in an elevator.
There was no fanfare,
no waiting reporters.
But they were still overjoyed.
Like all cavers, in victory or defeat,
they were used to being on their own.
Beneath the New Mexican desert,
the National Geographic expedition
to Lechuguilla
Begins its second week underground.
The cave's beauty is now legendary,
but there is more to discover here.
High on a hill deep within the heart
of the cave, a mystery unfolds.
Sulfur is prevalent here and
in other regions of the cave.
And tiny bacteria are found
in these deposits along
with fungi that feed on them.
In turn, the bacteria may feed
on the sulfur,
thriving in eternal darkness.
Evidence indicates an unusual genesis
for Lechuguilla.
As hydrogen sulfide rose from below,
it mixed with oxygen in water or air,
forming sulfuric acid.
This potent chemistry gradually
ate through the limestone,
creating the cave from the bottom up.
Lechuguilla's vulnerability
to human impact
may preclude it from ever becoming
a public show cave.
A profound respect for the cave
is shared by most cavers
and severely enforced.
Special shoes are worn for
traversing formations where boots
may mar exquisite flowstone.
Stalagmites of calcite line the shores
of the Persian Gulf,
so called because of the thousands
of pearl-like formations found here.
Looking like fried eggs,
this kind of cave pearl is built up
from calcite in the water.
Another variety of cave pearl forms
when a single grain of sand
becomes coated with calcite.
Over time the relentless dripping
of water swivels the grain
and the coating becomes thicker,
like the creation of a pearl
in an oyster.
Lake Castrovalva guards
a remote corner of the cave.
The only way across is to swim.
But the conservation creed demands
that no dirty clothing soil its purity
The air and water temperatures
are the same year round 68 degrees.
Intricate stone formations
border the edge of the lake,
slowly deposited by waters rich
in calcite.
For eons these exotic shores
have been still and silent
calm until now.
Light on the station.
The primary function of any expedition
is to explore and survey the cave
to produce a detailed map.
Keeping accurate records is virtually
a religion for modern cavers.
Two thirty-nine, point five.
It's what separates them from earlier,
less responsible explorers underground
Plus four.
Plus four.
Finding something new is
the first great thrill of caving.
The second comes later
finding the way out.
Each night the latest survey date
are typed into the computer
to produce an updated map.
The ancient skeleton
of a ring-tailed cat.
Kiym Cunningham examines
one of the riddles of Lechuguilla.
It's a mystery. I mean, altogether
it's a mystery how he got down here.
We're a thousand feet below
the surface.
Many vertical pits and long passages
to get here.
So, he was a heck of a caver!
He evidently died right on the margin
of this old pool system here,
so I would imagine possibly
he was alive when he was down here,
came to the pool to drink.
Only source of water he could find.
And maybe the mineral content
was very high.
It was not a good pool to drink from
and that may have been what killed him
The amount of carbon dioxide
in the cave atmosphere is measured.
If the level down here
is the same as on the surface,
it could indicate other openings
yet to be discovered.
Somewhere within the cave's vast system
the air is being disturbed.
There is noticeable movement.
Still, Lechuguilla refuses to yield
its secrets easily.
It remains alien
and strangely beautiful,
a landscape from another world.
Lechugulla's wonder is a fragile thing
What man can discover,
he can easily destroy.
Most of us may never see
these enchanting caverns
and others that lie still undiscovered.
But perhaps it will be enough to know
that they are there.
Lechuguilla now consists
of almost 60 miles
of breathtaking passageways.
New discoveries continue
and there is no end in sight.