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Showing posts from April, 2021

Frail Loops Cave - April Fools 2021

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For approximately the last year I have been working with a small team of cavers to document and map a new cave find in Tennessee. Despite only having mapped six miles of cave passage, we have found that the cave is absurdly enormous in terms of volume. The geology and formations of the cave are so massive as to be confusing. Not to be overdramatic, but the mechanisms of it's development call into question much of what we understand about cave development in general. In other words, this one is a game changer. Among its many discoveries is a river system on par with that of the Cumberland River. A breakdown crawl at the entrance, followed by a nearly vertical scramble on breakdown of about 180' brings you to the gigantic river passage. The mostly phreatic borehole here runs for most of the mapped length of the cave as a network of braided passage varying in height between 20' - 140' in some places. Familiar, but bizarrely huge formations peak down on us from galleri