Spelunkers Explore Crystalline Cave In New Mexico

onehitwonder writes "New Mexico cavers have set foot — for the first time ever — on a 'river' of tiny, white calcite crystals covering a four-mile stretch of the floor of the Fort Stanton Cave in New Mexico. The privileged few spelunkers who have explored the 'Snowy River' formation say they've seen nothing like it. Not only is Snowy River exquisite, it is also home to some three dozen species of microbes previously unknown to man."

Comments

Re:Protect the cave system

[plasmacutter]

Human life, sent millions and millions of miles, is too precious to risk on non-Earth spelunking.

And this mentality is why we will not leave this planet until the second age of man, after the over-protective ninnies have been killed off in pillars of nuclear fire.

Human life is precious, but the reason we have tamed frontiers right now is because before the mid 20'th century, it was also considered expendable for the greater good and survival of the species.

If there are people willing and eager to go to these places, our society should enable them. They could die, sure, and relieve some of our population, and they could also do great things, expanding our horizons, resources, and habitable areas.

Re: Why not send light-weight robots?

[Talkischeap]

"Why not send light-weight robots that have been disinfected? It's not like we don't have the technology.

You obviously aren't a caver, and have never been deep in a "wild" cave.

Perhaps you think that caves have BIG "Hollywood" entrances, and have floors that are boulevard flat, and perhaps there is a little "ambient" light like in caves in the movies.

I can safely say that there is currently no robot in existence that can fully navigate most caves (worth exploring) on the planet.

Perhaps small portions of a few, but not deep into them.

I've been exploring in caves where I'm literally two hours from the entrance, and a 150 foot climb up a rope to exit the cave, yet I'll squeeze through a body tight hole just to see where it "goes".

So I'll exhale and push forward an inch, and then do it again, and repeat until I'm through.

And then after exploring around I have to come back through, but a robot would have been stopped by this "tight spot".

Cavers sometimes need to "move rocks" to progress down the (hopefully virgin) cave passage, and I can't see any cave navigable robot being able to move a 100 pound rock, let alone the hundreds of pounds of rock like I've moved many times in less sensitive caves.

Many "serious" caves require a rope drop of a hundred feet or more to enter, and a climb to exit, and how many robots can do that?

Oh, none.

Now lets talk energy... it takes a great deal of energy to navigate a cave environment, and unless you have a looong extension cord no robot is going very far into any wild cave.

And nobody is going to carry a heavy robot deep into a cave so it can "scoop booty"... no way.

It may be decades before humans are replaced as cave explorers on Earth.

Mars is a different story, and all the caves targeted have huge Hollywood entrances, and the "robots" likely won't be entering very far into them at all.

And "big up" to Jim Goodbar, he took us deeeep into Cottonwood 20 years ago.