What is underground? How close can humans be to the center of the earth? Is there a way for humans to dig all the way to the center of the earth? Today, we tell a story about caves.
There is a cave in Russia, it is probably the deepest cave in the world, and its name is Vilovkina Cave. Some people take it as a hobby to explore caves, while others use it as a job. Cave exploration has always been very dangerous, in the depth of hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters underground, completely shrouded in darkness, and most caves are good at water accumulation, once the water level rises, people in the cave may face lack of oxygen. The most terrifying thing is that in the depths of the cave, people are facing a complete unknown, and there may be dangers at any time.
The Velovkina Cave is located in the Arabeka Mountains in northwestern Georgia, and its entrance is so hidden and narrow that it is likely to be undetectable if you are not careful. However, it is such a low-key cave, its depth reaches 2212 meters, as if it leads to the center of the earth, of course, this is still very far from the center of the earth.
The Vilovkina Cave was first discovered by Soviet cavers in 1968, when experts only explored a depth of 115 meters, so the place was marked as S-115 on the map. About 15 years later, a cavern club in Moscow followed a map to a depth of 440 meters. In the next 30 years, the cave was known only to this point, and it was always thought that it was only 440 meters.
The Vilovkina Cave really feels like a bottomless pit. The mountain is on the surface, and we can intuitively see its height, but in the dark and bottomless abyss, it is basically difficult for the expedition team to determine the depth of the cave, which is often very deep and narrow, and may only allow the next person to pass.
However, about 6 years ago, in 2015, things changed dramatically. A Russian expedition club made a major discovery in which they found a naturally steep shaft in a cave where the location was very deep, and at that time due to the limited length of their rope, no specific depth was determined.
Later, the expedition returned to further determine the depth of the shaft to 630 meters, and then they continued to go deeper and found that the cave was more than 1,000 meters deep. By 2017, the expedition had reached 2,204 meters, setting a new world record, and Velovkina had become the deepest hole in the world.
When the depth of the Vilovkina Cave was more than 2100 meters, the expedition team found a horizontal passage of more than 6000 meters, which means that the underground of the cave is like a huge labyrinth.
As a result, the dark and humid environment here has also bred many strange species, such as very rare scorpions, which makes the expedition team feel very magical, and brought a few home to study. Not only that, but there are also very rich fossils of creatures on this cave, which are engraved on the stone wall, and through the study of the stone wall, the magical creatures in the cave in the early years can be explored.
What is even more peculiar is that so far underground, there is a dungeon, and there is a lake in the dungeon, which covers an area of about 120 square meters and is surrounded by limestone.
Because the cave is very deep, the Cave of Velovkina is also unusually dark, cold and damp. At about 800 underground, the humidity has reached 100%, and the temperature is only in single digits. Some of the locations with stagnant water can only rely on the expedition team to swim past, if it is not a professional to explore, the small life may be accounted for here.
This year, while exploring Vilovkina, the expedition found a human corpse at around 1100, dressed in camouflage and hiking boots, and very well equipped, with backpacks, crampons and trekking poles. It can only be determined that he is not a member of the expedition, and as for where he came from, everyone is also very confused.
It was later confirmed that the man was a 37-year-old married local man, who was an amateur cave lover who searched and learned a lot of adventure knowledge on his own, and then drove alone to the Vilovkina Cave, relying on the food stored by the expedition team, he lived in the camp for a week, then went to 1100 meters underground, and finally died of lack of temperature because he was not prepared enough.
Not to mention amateurs, even professionals are very dangerous under such conditions. Like many caves, Vilovkina is located below the water table, and it is very likely that there will be groundwater gushing in, directly submerging the cave, and people inside are easily killed by lack of oxygen. In the process of exploration, professionals also face great challenges, and even experience moments when they are not careful.
Why on earth is there such a curiosity about the underground? Heaven and earth, if you can't get to the bottom of it, maybe human wisdom can't be revealed.
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