A cave or cavern is a natural void under the Earth's surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance underground. Caves which extend further underground than the opening is wide are called endogene caves.
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ponor, swallow hole or swallet. A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. Sink, and stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock.
The Sarlacc is a fictional creature in George Lucas's sci-fi action saga Star Wars. It first appeared in the film Return of the Jedi (1983) as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping maw is lined with several rows of sharp teeth, inhabiting the Great Pit of Carkoon, a hollow in the sand of the desert planet Tatooine. After the bounty hunter Boba Fett escapes from its maw in "Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land" of The Book of Boba Fett (2022) and eventually returns to retrieve his armor, the Sarlacc is killed by his partner Fennec Shand in "Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm".
Artlish Caves Provincial Park is a provincial park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
Castleguard Cave is a limestone cave located at the north end of Banff National Park in the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada. With 20,357 metres (66,788 ft) of surveyed passages, it is Canada's longest cave, and its fifth deepest at 384 metres (1,260 ft). Castleguard Cave ascends gently from its entrance and terminates beneath the Columbia Icefield.
The Marble Arch Caves are a series of natural limestone caves located near the village of Florencecourt in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. The caves are named after the nearby Marble Arch, a natural limestone arch at the upstream end of Cladagh Glen under which the Cladagh River flows. The caves are formed from three rivers draining off the northern slopes of Cuilcagh mountain, which combine underground to form the Cladagh. On the surface, the river emerges from the largest karst resurgence in Ireland, and one of the largest in the United Kingdom. At 11.5 kilometres (7.1 mi) the Marble Arch Caves form the longest known cave system in Northern Ireland, and the karst is considered to be among the finest in the British Isles.
Catherine Hickson is a Canadian volcanologist, formerly with the Geological Survey of Canada, part of Natural Resources Canada. Since 2014, she has been the chief operating officer for Dajin Resources Corp. and president, Tuya Terra Geo Corp. Hickson studied at the University of British Columbia and received her PhD in geology and volcanology in 1987.
Named after Eli Simpson, Simpson Pot is a limestone cave in West Kingsdale, North Yorkshire, England. It leads into Swinsto Cave and thence into Kingsdale Master Cave, and it is popular with cavers as it is possible to descend it by abseiling down the pitches, retrieving the rope each time, and exiting through Valley Entrance of Kingsdale Master Cave at the base of the hill. It is part of a 27-kilometre (17 mi) long cave system that drains both flanks of Kingsdale.
The Canim River is a river in the South Cariboo region of the Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It begins at the outlet of Canim Lake and runs 1.8 km (1.1 mi) to Canim Falls, then continues 8 km (5.0 mi) via a canyon cut into a lava plateau to Mahood Lake. A second outlet from Canim Lake, also part of the Canim River, flows over Mahood Falls and joins the Canim Falls branch.
The Murtle River is a river in east-central British Columbia, Canada. It rises from a large unnamed glacier in the Cariboo Mountains at an elevation of 2,300 metres (7,500 ft) and flows southwest for 18 kilometres (11 mi) to the head of gigantic Murtle Lake. The river also drains Murtle Lake then flows southwest for 36 kilometres (22 mi) into the Clearwater River. The Murtle River is the longest and largest tributary to the Clearwater.
The Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst are a series of over 1000 karst caves spread out over a total area of 55,800 ha along the border of Hungary and Slovakia. With an exceptional diversity of karst structures and complex cave systems developing from both temperate and tropical processes, the caves and surrounding areas were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.
Arctomys Cave is a cave in Trio Mountain above the Moose River Valley in Mount Robson Provincial Park in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. Arctomys Cave has 3496 metres of surveyed passages and has a maximum depth of 536 metres (1,759 ft).
Close to the Edge is a significant cave in the Dezaiko Range of the Rocky Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. It is within Close To The Edge Provincial Park and Protected Area about 160 km east of Prince George, British Columbia.
Wells Gray Provincial Park is a large wilderness park located in east-central British Columbia, Canada. The park protects most of the southern, and highest, regions of the Cariboo Mountains and covers 5,415 square kilometres. It is British Columbia's fifth largest provincial park, after Tweedsmuir, Tatshenshini, Spatsizi and Northern Rocky Mountains.
BoomingIceChasm is an ice cave, located in the Crowsnest Pass area of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada.
Anou Boussouil is a limestone karst cave located in the mountains of Djurdjura, Algeria. The cave is 3,200 metres (10,500 ft) long and 805 metres (2,641 ft) deep. The entrance to the cave is 1,074 metres (3,524 ft) up the mountainside. During the springtime rainy season, melting snow pours through a channel leading directly to the cave mouth, continuing the process of erosion. This distinguishes it from other caves in the Djurdjura range, which are inactive and no longer being enlarged through erosion.
Pınargözü Cave, is a cave 18 kilometres (11 mi) west of the town of Yenişarbademli in Isparta Province, Turkey. It is considered the longest cave in Turkey, although it has not yet been fully explored, and the precise extent to which it has been explored is in dispute.
Baileys Chute, often misspelled Bailey's Chute, is one in a series of small waterfalls along the Clearwater River in Wells Gray Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada. With an average high flow rate of 122 m3/s (4,300 cu ft/s), it is one of the largest waterfalls in British Columbia.
Bisaro Anima is a cave located on the Mount Bisaro plateau in British Columbia, Canada. It is the deepest cave in Canada.
Cave diving is underwater diving in water-filled caves. The equipment used varies depending on the circumstances, and ranges from breath hold to surface supplied, but almost all cave diving is done using scuba equipment, often in specialised configurations with redundancies such as sidemount or backmounted twinset. Recreational cave diving is generally considered to be a type of technical diving due to the lack of a free surface during large parts of the dive, and often involves planned decompression stops. A distinction is made by recreational diver training agencies between cave diving and cavern diving, where cavern diving is deemed to be diving in those parts of a cave where the exit to open water can be seen by natural light. An arbitrary distance limit to the open water surface may also be specified. Despite the risks, water-filled caves attract scuba divers, cavers, and speleologists due to their often unexplored nature, and present divers with a technical diving challenge.
Descent of 90 m into cave
Cave entrance in winter
