National Geographic: Mysteries Underground

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It all begins with water and rock.

As water seeks its level,

it becomes acidic.

And when it flows over limestone,

it etches a path into the rock.

Given eons of time,

water will burrow and carve,

with incredible force,

the veins and arteries of planet Earth

So the underworld of caves is born.

And after torrents have done

their work,

patient drops do more wonders

in a million years or so.

Look now on a landscape no one dreamed

existed just a few years ago.

Here are bizarre and

fantastic treasures that stun the eye

and strain the imagination.

Here is discovery and danger.

Here is adventure.

In New Mexico, members of a

National Geographic Society expedition

explore the world's newest

and most exotic major cave.

They are following one of man's

most ancient imperatives

to see and understand the unknown.

Join us now as we embark on

an extraordinary journey

deep into the earth

to confront MYSTERIES UNDERGROUND.

In the Guadalupe Mountains

of southern New Mexico,

an awesome giant has lain hidden

for a million years.

Sometimes, in the desert silence,

the monster could be heard breathing.

The sound came from a yawning chasm

in the rocks.

In 1986 a trio of weekend explorers

broke through a layer of rubble

and discovered a new cave

only a few miles

from famous Carlsbad Cavern.

Although the cave entrance lay inside

Carlsbad Caverns National Park,

park officials allowed qualified

cavers to explore it.

One of them was Rick Bridges,

an oil and gas prospector.

Now Bridges leads

a hand-picked team of experts,

like rock climber Dave Jones,

on the 25th expedition to Lechuguilla.

You got the survey gear, Anne?

Research geologist Kiym Cunningham

will handle the science studies

for the expedition.

Nuclear test engineer Anne Strait

is an expert

in surveying and mapping caves.

And specialist cameraman from England,

Sid Perou,

will be the first to document

Lechuguilla on motion picture film.

The journey begins

with a deceptively ordinary hike.

The cave is named after a desert plant

that grows in this harsh,

dry environment-Lechuguilla-Spanish

for little lettuce.

Forty people will support the venture,

including two support teams

to pack in supplies

and batteries for photographic lights.

On high rope.

We tend to have this feeling that

the surface of the earth

is the life of the earth.

But we're just this small,

thin little shell that we choose

to call our world,

and beneath it there's an entire realm

that we know very little about.

And we can, if we choose,

enter that realm and

we can learn something from it.

I will never go to the moon,

but I can go to a cave

the nobody else has been to

and have the same elation

of exploration in the sense

that I have gone where

no one's gone before.

Bombs away.

I would like to think that

had I lived in another time

I would have been an explorer.

You know,

had I lived in the late 1700s,

I would have wanted to know what

was across the Appalachian Mountains.

If I'd been around when Lewis

and Clark went to the coast,

I'd liked to have gone with them,

you know.

And I think most people that cave

at this level and do this kind

of exploration feel that way.

Here, Bridges and his companions

excavated to break into Lechuguilla

for the first time.

Now the entrance is protected

by a lockable hatchway.

Through this tiny aperture

the cave breathes

blowing air out or sucking

it in to equalize with the

barometric pressure above ground.

Winds up to 60 miles

an hour howl out of here,

hinting at the vast underworld below.

Today, this is Lechuguilla's

only known entrance,

and there may have never been another.

For a million years

this place has lain undisturbed.

In a real sense,

it is a primordial world,

untouched by all

but microscopic forms of life.

On rope!

It's a long ways down.

See you guys on the bottom.

Dave Jones starts down

the 150 foot pit

called Boulder Falls

It was here

that the first explorers realized

what a vast place they had discovered.

As you progress down,

it gets steeper and steeper

and pretty soon you're free hanging,

but your feet

are still against the rock

And all of a sudden you rappel

by this little ledge

and there's no more rock.

There's nothing in any direction.

Beyond the base of the pit

the cave branches off

in all directions.

Only computer imagery can portray

this labyrinth.

After the May 1986 exploration

the cave was known to be 700 feet deep

and more than half a mile long.

Today the system totals 60 miles

and plummets more than 1,600 feet.

Twisting capillaries and veins pierce

the earth in all directions.

This is a gigantic maze

in three dimensions,

defying conventional ideas

of direction and scale.

Footprints remain forever

in this fragile environment.

Plastic ribbons keep cavers

on main trails.

Expeditions into Lechuguilla have been

likened to exploring Everest

only in reverse.

The team is headed for Base Camp

still hours away.

The trail leads on into inky blackness

Often they traverse chambers so vast

the cave walls are barely discernible.

Gypsum crystals sparkle

along the route.

Now, cavers encounter Lechuguilla's

fantastic decorations

for the first time.

Helictites and gypsum flowers

extrude from the walls

fragile gardens that have taken

centuries to blossom,

as minerals have been squeezed from

the rocks like toothpaste from a tube.

Beauty abounds.

These jewels of the underground

are exquisitely delicate needles

of selenite.

With the constant maneuvering up down

and through the cave's

difficult terrain,

become painful burdens.

Always, in Lechuguills,

danger is not far away.

Okay, on three. One, two, three.

In 1991 seasoned caver Emily Mobley

slipped and broke her leg

while working on a surveying expedition

in the cave's western sector.

A mile and a half from the entrance,

this accident would trigger the largest

and most publicized cave rescue

in U.S. history.

A hundred experienced cavers

summoned to the scene

would labor four arduous days

to bring her to safety.

The bond of comradeship that unites

the caving community was seldom more

evident than during this emergency.

Every caver knows and instinctively

responds to the code of the underground

that only cavers can save

and protect each other.

After almost four hours,

the expedition reaches Lake Lebarge,

the first sizeable body of water to be

discovered in this branch of Lechuguilla.

Beautiful!

One of the greatest sights in caving,

isn't it?

Yes. Fantastic.

Is this Lake Lebarge?

Yeah.

Lebarge Borehole looks easier now.

Beautiful!

On rope!

the lake completely blocks

the way ahead.

Cavers had to wade it until they

found a detour

tricky, but possible.

Well, I think of particular moves

like dancing around the edge of Lebarge

as almost a ballet,

an underground ballet.

I know where my footholds are;

I know where my handholds are.

I know if I hit them just right

and move just right

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