Hang Son Doong is a cave in central Vietnam which was recently discovered in 2009 by British cavers. The name Hang Son Doong means “mountain river cave”. It was created 2-5 million years ago by river water eroding away the limestone underneath the mountain. Where the limestone was weak, the ceiling collapsed creating huge skylights. The first expedition in 2009, cavers explored two and a half miles of the cave until they ran into a wall of muddy calcite that was 200 feet in height. They named it the Great Wall of Vietnam. A year later, they returned with more cavers, scientists, and a crew of porters. A mile into the cave, it is large enough for a 747 airplane to fly through. Also there is a large sink hole that is 300 feet across and 800 feet above, tall enough for an entire New York City block of 40-story buildings to fit. It allows sunlight and rain into the cave so viewers can see the immensity of this natural beauty. There is a stalagmite that looks like a dogs’ paw here and they named it The Hand of Dog. The next skylight is called the Garden of Edam and it’s bigger than the first. Below is a pile of rubble with a jungle of 100ft tall trees. Just a little over two miles in, they finally got to the Great Wall of Vietnam. It took 20 hours of drilling holes before the climbers actually got to the top. At the top, the climbers noticed something in a dried up pool…cave pearls. Cave pearls are formed when a drop of water from the ceiling hits the limestone floor and throws up a speck of rock. This grain is jostled in its little cup of stone every time a drop hits it. Over thousands of years, a solid, almost perfectly round calcite pearl is formed. These are very rare and are usually only as big as a marble, but here they are the size of baseballs. They named this new found place…Pearl Harbor. Oh yeah I forgot to mention…it also became the largest cave on the planet…so far…
For the full story copy and paste this into your browser: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/jenkins-text
Nice & wonderful cave in Vietnam. Thanks for your articles. I found that the same useful site at: http://www.sondoong-cave.com
it’s amazing