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That's not a weird phobia by any means. That's very common and it's called claustrophobia.
I'm not afraid of small enclosed spaces (e.g. in a building) - I'm afraid of caves :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not a weird phobia by any means. That's very common and it's called claustrophobia.
I'm not afraid of small enclosed spaces (e.g. in a building) - I'm afraid of caves :-)
Scope doesn't change the phobia.
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It's interesting, I wonder what the pros and cons are for drilling to retrieve them or send supplies. In the mine collapse situations that I'm aware of, there was already infrastructure on hand for heavy equipment and drilling. I have to imagine that the dangers of cave diving are multiplicative - you don't get enough skill-based improvement from any given trip into/out to make repeated trips a safe option.
I'm sure I don't understand the scale of this. I would however think that you can bring huge industrial pumps and do some plumbing to a suitable place to dump the water and turn them on. Holland once send 7 million ton a day of pumping capacity to England to help them out. Could that not make a serious impact on the water levels in the cave?
Those divers are super brave. This was done under extremely difficult circumstances, they risked their lives with a reasonably high chance of at least one of them not making it back.
Bravery is fundamentally incompatible with cave diving - if you're taking risks in such a hostile environment, you won't survive. What keeps you alive in an underwater cave is training, caution and meticulous attention to detail.
Assuming the divers will have to shuttle supplies to the trapped team: is there a way to make repeated dives less risky, such as stringing a guide line that divers can follow?
Many underwater cave entrances are marked with a stark warning sign bearing an image of the grim reaper, imploring the diver to "prevent your death - go no farther". Underwater caves can be enticing to divers, but entering one without the correct training and equipment is extraordinarily dangerous. Hundreds of scuba divers have swum into an inviting-looking cave with crystal clear water, then turned around to see a wall of darkness from the silt they have kicked up; very few have lived to tell the tale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distance_line
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/up...
How does cave oxygen supply work? Would they not run out of oxygen by the time they can get out? Also, one detail that CNN got that I didn't see in this article: it seems the cave is one kilometer underground ! [1] EDIT 1: The CNN article partially answers my first question: "Rescuers will also pump air into the cave to improve conditions." EDIT 2: Another important bit here [2]: "It won't be anything like diving tha…
>How does cave oxygen supply work? Would they not run out of oxygen by the time they can get out? Most cave systems are relatively permeable. Even if you can't see a route out, there are likely to be paths for air movement. The immediate threat is the accumulation of carbon dioxide rather than a deficit of oxygen. Fresh air is about 0.04% CO2, but most caves have ambient CO2 levels of over 1% and some as high as 6%.…
Those divers are super brave. This was done under extremely difficult circumstances, they risked their lives with a reasonably high chance of at least one of them not making it back.
It's skill rather than bravery. Rick Stanton and John Volanthen were the divers who first made contact with the missing boys. They are both hugely experienced cave divers and cave rescue divers; as a team, they have broken multiple records in depth and distance. This was a difficult and complex diving operation, but that's business as usual for divers of this calibre. Bravery is fundamentally incompatible with cave d…
People who simply aren’t brave just don’t go cave diving.
That’s not to say that skill and consideration aren’t very important, but those guys are still both brave.
Those divers are super brave. This was done under extremely difficult circumstances, they risked their lives with a reasonably high chance of at least one of them not making it back.
I have a weird phobia where I'm afraid of caves - the very idea of caving in small caves where people wriggle through has always terrified me and as for cave diving.... I could not do what they have done - not if my life depended on it.... Personally, I think they deserve the very highest honours we can give them as a country.
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I'm not afraid of small enclosed spaces (e.g. in a building) - I'm afraid of caves :-)
I'm no psychologist but I think claustrophobia can express itself in different ways in different people - if it's the enclosed spaces in caves that make you fearful/anxious, it's a claustrophobic reaction. You wouldn't necessarily also have to have the same reaction in e.g. an elevator.
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Narongsak explained that the divers had fixed rope lines along the passageway and distributed oxygen tanks along their route, allowing them to advance through the exceptionally narrow passageway unencumbered by bulky equipment. Other teams worked to pump out floodwater and divert groundwater, he said. It seems like they have something like this in place already. From what I understand the passageway is quite narrow,…
Now that the route is mapped, I wonder if you could get robots to do the supply trips instead.
In such situations it's best to go with the simplest solution you know will work and people are trained for, instead of trying to get fancy and possibly endanger the whole undertaking (imagine a robot getting stuck somewhere and blocking the way for everyone...).
