schwit1 shared this report from LiveScience: The world’s longest known cave system just set a new record after surveyors spent hours mapping an additional 8 miles (13 kilometers) of the passageways at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky.
The corridors at Mammoth Cave now measure a whopping 420 miles (676 km) in length, according to the National Park Service (NPS). That’s about the distance between New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Mapping the cave system was a huge undertaking, carried out by volunteers at the Cave Research Foundation (CRF), a Kentucky-based nonprofit group, and other locals, including those from the Central Kentucky Karst Coalition.
“Many of the cave trips are long and arduous, involving climbing, vertical exposure, squeezes, crawlways, water and mud,” Karen Willmes, the eastern operations manager with CRF, said in an NPS statement… “After the trip, cartographers turn the data collected on the cave trip into a map. Other volunteers provide surface support.
of this story at Slashdot.
Source:: Slashdot