Earths deepest explored cave.

[WarToad]

Krubera Cave,  Arabika Massif, Western Caucuses.

http://www.speleogenesis.info/directory/spotlights/index.php?info=11

Ukrainian Speleological Association, "The Call of the Abyss" Project
Arabika Massif, Western Caucasus

"The Call of the Abyss" Project is a multi-year project aimed to the exploration and study of deep caves in the two outstanding limestone massifs: Aladaglar massif in the Eastern Taurus ( Turkey) and Arabika massif in the Western Caucasus (Abkhasia). An ultimate goal of the Project, officially adopted in 2000, was to discover, explore and study the first 2000m+ deep cave on Earth. The project is run by the Ukrainian Speleological Association, and involves institutions, individual cavers and karst scientists from Ukraine, Turkey, Britain, France, Spain, Moldova, Russia and Abkhazia.

The expeditions of the Project in summer 2004 have been supported by the National Geographic Society, USA. The Leica Geosystems Company of Switzerland kindly sponsored laser distometers used for topographic surveys in the explored caves. Help with caving equipment had been provided by the Ukrainian "Traverse", "Atlantida", and "Megacom" companies and the Slovak "Meander" company. The official carrier of the project expedition to Turkey was the "Motor-Sich" company of Ukraine. Their sponsorship and help is greatly acknowledged.

Arabika is an outstanding alpine karst massif in the Western Caucasus, were many deep cave explorations have been made since 1980, including Krubera-Voronja (-2191 m) and the nearby Arabikskaja system (Kujbyshevskaja-Genrikhova Bezdna; -1110 m) in the Ortobalagan Valley.

Other prominent caves in various sectors of the massif are Iljukhina system (-1240 m), Dzou Cave (-1080 m), Moskovskaja Cave (-970 m) and the Sarma Cave (-1530m). The hydrogeological potential of Arabika had been proven to be over 2300m by dye tracing tests conducted in 1984-85.



http://network.speleogenesis.info/directory/exploration/krubera_profile_large.gif
(link to the map, from which you can enlarge for better viewing.)

The exploration of the Krubera cave to -1710m by the Ukrainian Speleological Association had established a world depth record in the beginning of 2001. The subsequent chronicle of explorations in Krubera follows below (in the reverse order).


I find exploration at this depth absolutely fascinating.  And that they take a siege assault process where dozens of people start in the begining, shuttling supplies and equipment down to a series of underground camps, all in support of the team exploring new ground.  ~ WarToad

"There Are Older And Fouler Things Than Orcs In The Deep Places of the world."
~ Gandalf

[Pimander]

They should be careful what they awaken in the depths of the Earth.  Remember what happened to Gandalf. 

To visit the interior of the Earth, one must be a servant of the secret fire.

[Lunica]

Fascinating!

I really like these sorts of investigations. At ATS there was some years ago a big thread about "the Untersberg" in Germany.

Maybe they walk into some hidden under the ground Grays... 

[WarToad]

I guess, not surprisingly, the Krubera cave is also the home of the deepest living terrestrial animal found on earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krubera_Cave

BiologyThe biocenosis of Krubera-Voronja is composed of more than 12 species of arthropods of several groups, such as pseudoscorpions, spiders, opiliones, crustaceans, springtails, beetles and dipterans.[7]Krubera-Voronja cave is inhabited by endemic species, such as the springtails Anurida stereoodorata, Deuteraphorura kruberaensis, Schaefferia profundissima and Plutomurus ortobalaganensis, discovered in the CAVEX Team expedition of 2010. The last species listed is the deepest terrestrial animal ever found on Earth, living at 1,980 metres (6,500 ft) below the cave entrance.[8]The beetle Catops cavicis inhabits Krubera-Voronja cave and also several caves around the Ortobalagan valley.

[Pimander]

Yuk, cave fleas!

[zorgon]

I really like these sorts of investigations. At ATS there was some years ago a big thread about "the Untersberg" in Germany.

Have that here..

PARA: Untersberg - The Mystery Mountain

Addendum - Addition Information from other Members