Mammoth Cave, located in the central part of Kentucky National Park, has attracted the attention of explorers for centuries. Cavers have found blind fish in underground rivers, gypsum flower tunnels, waterfalls and sinkholes. However, more and more halls are still opening. It seems that this natural formation has no end or edge.
The longest cave in the world
Speleologist Roger Brucker believes that several people live on earth at once, obsessed with this mysterious place. He is also on this list. People are really intrigued by how big the Mammoth Cave is, how far it stretches and how many kinds of cave passages it contains. The unbridled curiosity of scientists is fueled by a continuous stream of discoveries.
60 years of life dedicated to the study of the object
During his long and eventful life, our hero tried on many images and roles. He was a writer, moved in the circles of the executive branch, was a social activist and teacher. However, she was always at the forefront of his interests - the Mammoth Cave. He has been exploring her uncharted nooks for over 60 years. For such an impressive period of time, Roger Brucker was fortunate enough to be part of many amazing discoveries. In his memory, the "coronation" of the object took place, and now the Mammoth Cave bears the proud title of the longest cave in the world.
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Organization of a research fund
In 1950, our hero joined a team of ambitious young cavers traveling around Kentucky National Park. They studied the landscape of the Flint Ridge Karst Cave System, and in parallel founded the Cave Research Foundation and put together a group of dedicated volunteers. The main goal of the scientists was to unite all local caves into a single gigantic system.
Until now, mapping or gathering information at this location has been an inconsistent and chaotic process. Back in the 1840s, Stephen Bishop published a sketch of the famous tunnels of the Mammoth Cave. However, later researchers of underground formations were in no hurry to expand the knowledge of the predecessor. The cards available varied. Sometimes they were detailed illustrations, and sometimes they were vague line charts.
Tunnel surveys were combined with a geographic map
Roger Brucker decided to put an end to the existing fragmentation and combined all tunnel surveys with a topographic map of the ground space. Now cavers were able to navigate like fish in water. At their service were maps of the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the object. However, this process took Bruecker almost 20 years of continuous and persistent land surveying. The effort was worth it, and in the end a huge breakthrough was made. In 1972, another speleological expedition connected the Flint Ridge cave system and the Mammoth Cave. It was this discovery that expanded the length of this underground formation to a grandiose 232 kilometers. Now the facility officially holds the title of the longest in the world.
When scientists don't stop there
But this is far from the limit. 44 years later, Mammoth Cave totaled almost 652 kilometers surveyed. This is almost twice as much as that of the closest competitor, the Mexican Sak-Actun. It is worth noting that behind these two cave systems there is not a single one in the immediate reach. Brucker and his colleague, speleologist James Borden, have already spoken out about the expansion of the "possessions" of the Mammoth Cave. According to authoritative experts, this object has great potential, and new discoveries will help expand it to at least one thousand miles.
The underworld is a special world
If you think that the study of cave systems has a lot to do with the study of geographic features on earth, you are deeply mistaken. The cave world is a special story, with a huge number of obstacles and hardships. New rooms are being opened thanks to the efforts of a large team of hundreds of people. This is a really slow process that requires tremendous dedication and enormous internal resources. For example, Roger Bruck himself, over 60 years of continuous underground work, covered "only" 193 kilometers of the underground kingdom. But this is much more than meets the eye of a common traveler. For the inspection of tourists in the Mammoth Cave, a piece of a little more than 19 kilometers is set aside. It is a completely safe track with numerous paws and handrails. The rest of the territory of the grandiose object is the domain of speleologists.