It's on OpenStreetMap already https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/651633176 and someone's named it the "Sarlacc Pit" (Star Wars reference). Unclear if the OSM editor came up with it or if it's from somewhere else.
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Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
61–70 of 92 posts
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a map with more recent, higher quality imagery than Google. https://zoom.earth/#52.516747,-120.04313,19z,sat
So much for trying to keep its location secret :) From the article: "Pollack wouldn’t reveal the exact location of the cave, saying only that it was in the northern section of the park. Asked whether he was concerned about protecting the site, he said, “We are, but also the thing is that this cave is truly in the middle of nowhere."
An awful lot of BC is the middle of nowhere. Hell, once you get 100km past the US border things thin out pretty quickly.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#63I’m curious as to how there are massive caves like this that we still haven’t discovered. Wouldn’t satellite imagery along with some ML be able to find these?
I guess the intersection between the set of people with the sufficient capabilities to do that and the set of people hunting for caves isn't that big. Is there a registry of all such caves with their coordinates to act as a training set?
Generally, cave location datasets are not widely shared. The contents of caves, both physical and biological, tend to be susceptible--nonresistant and nonresilient--to damage from human activity. It's easier to keep the data "low key" rather than the expend effort on widespread education.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess the intersection between the set of people with the sufficient capabilities to do that and the set of people hunting for caves isn't that big. Is there a registry of all such caves with their coordinates to act as a training set?
Generally, cave location datasets are not widely shared. The contents of caves, both physical and biological, tend to be susceptible--nonresistant and nonresilient--to damage from human activity. It's easier to keep the data "low key" rather than the expend effort on widespread education.
I wish we could keep this cave unexplored. I like the thought that there are places on Earth still untouched by human activity.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#65Wow ... That Cave is huge ... What unexpected things could we find there?
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Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#66Wow ... That Cave is huge ... What unexpected things could we find there?
Well... not to guess about the unexpected... but as for what is likely...
Following the pattern for caves in the Canadian Rockies, the lowest cave levels will be highly technical (wrt exploration techniques) with a cold and fast-moving river. The typical passage in such a cave often is somewhat like a slot canyon, but with more angular walls. The distance to the resurgence appears to be a couple of kilometers with an elevation difference of 450 meters. The geometry of flow from this swallet entrance to the resurgence looks joint or fault controlled directing the flow northward from the 'dry' valley's outlet. That is, the cave flow's exit is north of the dry valley's confluence with the north-south surface stream. Thus, a large amount of the cave is likely to occur deep under the mountain. With respect to exploration, this increases the chances that higher, drier alternate passageways and alternate infeeder streams exist aside from the main stream course. It is unclear from aerial imagery, but there is also some chance that the mountainside to the north and west of the entrance is karstified. If so, higher entrances are possible -- which could increase the total system depth. The deepest cave in Canada is ~650m from highest to lowest point. While most satellite imagery of the resurgent stream run show a whitewater cascade, there is some variation in flow. The cave at the resurgent spring would be one of the first places to investigate at low flow.
Congratulations to the team for a wonderful discovery!
(Just a quick impression. I have discovered quite a few sizable caves--not this one, of course)
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe the indigenous people knew about it
Quite likely. I have no idea why this was downvoted. It's usually the case native populations had far greater knowledge than they are ever credited for. Perhaps they will find some evidence of humans inside.
the article said it had probably been covered with snow year round until 20 years ago.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#68I’m curious as to how there are massive caves like this that we still haven’t discovered. Wouldn’t satellite imagery along with some ML be able to find these?
The best available imagery for remote areas is often crap.
Especially easily, publicly available imagery.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#69I would be curious to see a picture of where the underground river emerges.
Re: Canadian team confirms presence of huge unexplored cave in British Columbia
#70I would be curious to see a picture of where the underground river emerges.
A dye trace would be in order, but this would be the most likely resurgence. https://zoom.earth/#52.514097,-120.011987,20z,sat