Giant new 'cave' discovered in Venezuela

Silviron

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http://news.yahoo.com/.....

Man, this place is HUGE! Check the photo with the two helicopters dwarfed by the 'cave' opening.
HERE

Unless this is photoshopped, dang, I'm awed!

How could something this big be undiscovered in Venezuela so long? Venezuela has been better explored than a lot of places, so it is kind of a surprise to me.

All that and poison frogs too!
 
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greenLED

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

there's ancient magic hidden in tepuis :sssh:

Not surprising at all; the only way to get there is in helicopter and vast areas are still unexplored. Same thing with areas deep in the Amazon - glimpses of "uncontacted" tribes here and there.
 
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Kiessling

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

Cool ! I love such stories !
BUT ... frogs that kill humans are just ... wrong. IMHO. :green:
bernie
 

JonSidneyB

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

I need to know how to contact the people that are going to be mapping that cave.
 

Sixpointone

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

Wheereas that all looks interesting I am staying clear of the Poison Dart Frogs.
 

Silviron

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

greenLED said:
.....
Not surprising at all; the only way to get there is in helicopter and vast areas are still unexplored. .......

Yeah, but Venezuela has been much better explored than the deeper Amazon. Back in the day, I knew several people that were going 'everywhere' in Venezuela, variously looking for oil, gold and diamonds. Logging tens of thousands of miles of helicopter, boat, and foot every year.

I even went down there for a couple of weeks back in about '82 consulting to a company dredging gold and diamonds (too cool! both at once!) out of the same spot in the river.

I didn't get to do much outside of that one particular lease, but at that time mineral exploration in Venezuela was about like an anthill kicked over, and from the terrain in the photo, I'd have thought an opening that big would have been seen from the air at least.

Well. maybe that area is out of the rich mineralized / oil zones and no one had much hope of finding riches there.
 
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David_Campen

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

As usual, I believe that the reporters didn't quite get the story straight. The "cave" is more like a canyon with some collapse blocking some of the upper reaches.
 

Topper

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

Sixpointone said:
Wheereas that all looks interesting I am staying clear of the Poison Dart Frogs.

I'm not much into frogs... I would love a handful of the poison darts, figure that would be lots of fun for a minute or two till i stabbed myself after the famous "Hey guys watch this" remark.
Topper
 

David_Campen

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This area might have been isolated from the fungus that is causing all the frogs to die; I wonder if the explorers brought it in with them.
 

greenLED

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

Sixpointone said:
Wheereas that all looks interesting I am staying clear of the Poison Dart Frogs.

It'll only affect you if you ingest the frog, the extract from the skin, or rub one of them on an open wound. A friend of mine (herpetologist) used to work with Dendrobatids. She forgot to wash her hands after handling her specimens and put her fingers in her mouth... her mouth was numb for over 30 minutes. :green:

Local tribes use/d the frogs to make "curare" - for hunting and wars.


Unless you follow a systematic search pattern, you'll miss stuff. If you've even been part of a SAR rescue operation - it's really easy to miss stuff as you go forward, that's why you keep looking back every few meters.

I miss the forest...
 

jtice

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Re: Giant new cave discovered in Venezuela

....... WWWWOOOOOOWWWWW :eek:oo: :faint:

Thats amazing !!!!
I have seen some large cave pics in my day,,,, but daaaaamn !

~John
 

Mike Painter

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In the Redding California area of California in a federal park they recently "found" a large waterfall. Evidence shows that loggers and others in the past knew of it but nobody *official* had seen it for years and it was not mapped.

I remember a cartoon from years ago where the native guide was glaring at the white hunter as he exclaimed he had just discovered a new water fall.
 
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