Unearthing the secrets of evolution through cave exploration
Cave exploration, or Speleology, is providing valuable insights into evolution. Italian explorer Francesco Sauro describes the importance of underground investigation
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Every year hundreds of kilometres of caverns below the Earth’s surface are explored, with new discoveries in the underground world offering insights into the evolution of life.
The thirst for geographic exploration, which drove intrepid voyagers like Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt in the 18th century, now appears meaningless in the world of Google Earth, as satellites have surveyed every single square-metre of our planet’s surface.
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However, the siren’s call is far from being unheeded by a special breed of people who still experience the emotion of discovering the unknown, not far from (but below) their homes: speleologists.
It’s difficult to define this group of ‘explorers of the underground’. Usually, they are simply passionate individuals who use their free time to push forward the geographic knowledge of our Earth beyond the surface. Speleologists around the world are linked through scores of caving clubs in several countries (more than 200 in Europe, but also several in Russia and North and South America). An observer would be surprised to learn that it is not necessary to be a geologist or an Indiana Jones-type to contribute to the exploration of our planet.
For most speleologists it’s as if they have another continent to explore on weekends. It is a hobby that, in some cases, can provide astonishing backdrops, including the world’s longest cave system, the 500km long Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Some caves are up to 2,000 metres deep, such as the Voronja Abyss, the world’s deepest caves in the Arabika Massif of Abkhazia.
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Speleology combines technical and physical sport (some call it ‘reverse alpinism’) with science and discovery. Every expedition reveals new geological and biological environments hidden underground. In effect, it’s like exploring a new world, your next step visible thanks only to your lamp. All that exists beyond your sight remains unknown until you turn the next corner. This is true physical exploration; there are no satellites or advanced technologies to help in this journey.
Sometimes the quest for exploration in new and challenging environments brings speleologists to the least explored areas of the planet, such as the ancient Tepui mountains of the Amazon and Orinoco basins.
In the last 30 years, geologists thought that huge and deep cave systems were potentially found only in soluble rocks like limestone and gypsum. On the contrary, the cave systems of Tepui are formed mainly in quartz-sandstone, considered to be among the hardest and least soluble rocks on Earth. The huge dimensions of those caves represents a paradox not yet clearly explained by scientists.
These caves represent a real snapshot of the past. The time needed for their formation could be as long as 50-100m years, potentially the oldest caves on Earth. The mineralogical and biological worlds that are hidden in the caves’ inner most cores have evolved isolated from the surrounding external surface and represent the evidence of a lost world.
When Christopher Columbus left Europe and sailed toward the Americas, society at the time didn’t appreciate the full impact of his discoveries on the future of human beings. The same may be happening today in the scientific community as regards the exploration of the tepuis and other extremely interesting caves around the world. The information hidden within the nucleus of the tepuis is still to be revealed and analysed in detail.
Recently an expedition organised by the La Venta Geographic Exploration team discovered a new mineral, rossiantonite, (published in the American Mineralogist journal) and new cave animal species, such as a blind catfish that was trapped for hundreds of thousands of years in an underground river.
But the most astonishing features recently reported from these extreme environments are biospeleothem formations, such as stromatolites, built with silica by bacterial communities. The implication is that these microbiological studies could provide new insights into the evolution of life on Earth, a world where the mineralogical and biological evolutions were connected.
As a result of our exploration, more people will come to understand that we still have a lot to discover in the depths of the Earth, the last unexplored ‘dark’ continent.
Francesco Sauro, is a geologist and explorer of ancient quartzite caves in the massifs of South America. He will be speaking at the Every Second Counts Forum on 15 November 2014 at Kings Place, London. Follow this link to find out more and to apply to attend.
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ve-exploration
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