Mar. 6

MEXICO CITY - A pair of cave divers said Monday they have found subterranean passages in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula that constitute the world's longest underwater cave system.

British cave diver Steve Bogaerts said he and Robbie Schmittner, of Germany, found flooded underground passages connecting two previously known cave systems — a discovery that shows how interconnected and vulnerable the Yucatan's fabled underground water system is.

Gene Melton, chairman of the Cave Diving Section of the U.S.-based National Speleological Society, a nongovernmental association that tracks cave explorations, confirmed the discovery.

For thousands of years, Mayan Indians depended on water found in the caves and in lakes formed by sinkholes — areas where the caves' ceilings collapsed, opening them to the surface. The lakes dot the Yucatan peninsula, now one of the world's fastest-growing sites for tourism and resort developments.

Bogaerts said his dives proved a connection between the Nohoch Nah Chich caves and the Sac Actun system, which together measure 95 miles in length. That connection shows that many of the seemingly isolated watering holes are part of a single larger system, he said.

The longest previously known submerged cave system is the 91-mile Ox Bel Ha system, located in the same general area, according to documents posted by the Speleological Society on its Web site.

"That's the important thing for people to understand. ... The point is that they're so interconnected," Bogaerts said. "There are so many cave systems that if there's a point of pollution in any one particular area it can spread very extensively throughout the entire system."

Bogaerts and Schmittner spent four years swimming the length of the system, making about 500 dives with scuba tanks, linking one sinkhole lake to the next. Some passages were "big enough for a jumbo jet," while others were so narrow divers had to remove their tanks to wiggle through.

The breakthrough discovery — the passage connecting Nohoch Nah Chich ("The Giant Birdcage" in Maya) and Sac Actun ("White Cave") — was made by the two divers on Jan. 23.

Jonathan Martin, an assistant professor of geology at the University of Florida, said the discovery — which has not yet been published in scientific journals — appeared feasible, based on the geological formations of the Yucatan.

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I wonder why they don't publish these findings...???

I found some interesting sites on large caves and tunnels that went for numerous kilometres ...I'll see if I can dig them up again... they may be of interest... they fascinated me... were linked to lots of old legends....

http://www.voiaj.md/guide/countries/moldova/en.html
Within these the most interesting are caves and coral formations (toltry). In five caves there were found remainders of a civilization existing here 50000 years ago. The biggest cave called "Cinderella" (or Emil Racovitza) is located in the northern part of the country. The cave is 89 km in length and is the third longest gypsum cave. It was named so because of its underground beauty. Also in the northern part of Moldova near the Rudi village the scientists found more than 250 archeological monuments, one of which is an antique town Methonium, known by Herodot, a Greek ancient philosopher.