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It's the Wonder of Nature, Baby!

DrIanMalcolmDrIanMalcolm Registered User regular
edited January 2011 in Social Entropy++
Picture1-8.png

So twenty years ago Vietnam's Hang Son Doong cave was discovered. It is the largest in the world, with quite possibly the biggest subterranean passage on the planet, capable of fitting inside a half-mile block of 40-story buildings. You can get a pretty good idea of the scale with the above picture of the lone explorer in the center. The cave also has its own jungle.
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For whatever reason, the cave is just now being properly surveyed. National Geographic has a fascinating longer piece on the recent explorations of the cave, and also an amazing gallery of around two dozen images.
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This tiny jungle, nicknamed the "Garden of Edam", formed underneath a collapsed roof of the cave, which allowed first light and then vegetation to make its way inside the cave. It's very possible that this is the largest jungle inside a cave in the entire world.
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How awesome is nature huh?
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DrIanMalcolm on
«13

Posts

  • vermiculturevermiculture Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    that is way awesome!

    vermiculture on
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  • lostwordslostwords Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    oh my gosh, that looks awesome! wanna visit!

    lostwords on
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  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    [gears of war joke]

    Weaver on
  • UrielUriel Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    http://nerd-alert.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/hubbledeepfield.jpg

    This count as natural?

    Uriel on
  • Volucrisus AedriusVolucrisus Aedrius Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Fun fact about the deep field: The image appears warbled because of what is known as "gravitational lensing."

    You see, there is so much matter that its bending the fabric of space so the light isn't travelling in a straight line, causing the image to distort.

    Volucrisus Aedrius on
  • UrielUriel Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    And Space is fucking AWESOME.

    Uriel on
  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    I want to go to there.


    The cave, not deep space.


    Well, I want to go to deep space, too, but I'm also impatient, and I understand it'd take a while.

    Fishman on
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    Cardboard Tube wrote:
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    gevauden3.jpg
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg
    ghost-darkness-museum.jpg
    fig57Veniaminof.jpg

    fuck nature

    PiptheFair on
  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    crystal-cave-1.jpg
    Geologist Juan Manuel García-Ruiz calls it "the Sistine Chapel of crystals," but Superman could call it home.

    A sort of south-of-the-border Fortress of Solitude, Mexico's Cueva de los Cristales (Cave of Crystals) contains some of the world's largest known natural crystals—translucent beams of gypsum as long as 36 feet (11 meters).

    Deep inside Naica mountain, the Cave of Crystals is a horseshoe-shaped cavity in limestone rock about 30 feet (10 meters) wide and 90 feet (30 meters) long.

    Volcanic activity that began about 26 million years ago created Naica mountain and filled it with high-temperature anhydrite gypsum

    When magma underneath the mountain cooled and the temperature dropped, the anhydrite began to dissolve. The anhydrite slowly enriched the waters with sulfate and calcium molecules, which for millions of years have been deposited in the caves in the form of huge selenite gypsum crystals.

    crystal-cave-4.jpg

    #pipe on
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    Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
  • GreenGreen Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas.Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Disappointed in the lack of cave jungle dinosaurs

    Green on
  • IsoldaeIsoldae Hats Off To JigglypuffRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Nature is pretty cool.

    See Planet Earth/Life/Blue Planet.

    Isoldae on
    xet8c.gif
  • HunteraHuntera Rude Boy Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    ghost-darkness-museum.jpg

    fuck nature

    Man, those Lions were badasses, though.

    Huntera on
  • AriviaArivia I Like A Challenge Earth-1Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    nature is fantastic

    if mother nature was a person I would fuck her so hard in gratitude

    Arivia on
    huntresssig.jpg
  • GreenGreen Stick around. I'm full of bad ideas.Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Would that be incest?

    Green on
  • SolarSolar Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    As far as caves go, that is a cool cave

    Solar on
  • AMP'dAMP'd Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    AMP'd on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    AMP'd wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    stuff like this just makes me laugh maniacally

    Weaver on
  • Vann DirasVann Diras Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    AMP'd wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    what the fuck is this

    Vann Diras on
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Vann Diras wrote: »
    AMP'd wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    what the fuck is this

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones

    goddamn miracles

    PiptheFair on
  • BugBoyBugBoy boy.EXE has stopped functioning. only bugs remainRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Huntera wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    ghost-darkness-museum.jpg

    fuck nature

    Man, those Lions were badasses, though.

    you have to respect any animal that killed so many people

    BugBoy on
  • IsoldaeIsoldae Hats Off To JigglypuffRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    That rock thing was on the discovery channel at some point, I am pretty sure.

    Isoldae on
    xet8c.gif
  • BeastehBeasteh THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULARegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Green wrote: »
    Disappointed in the lack of cave jungle dinosaurs

    there is a part of Han Song Doong cave named 'Watch Out For Dinosaurs'

    I picked up a nat geo magazine while waiting for a delayed train to london on new years eve and this article immediately caught my attention

    whats amazing to me is that the chamber in the first pic of the OP is so vast that it has fucking clouds at the top

    Beasteh on
  • BEARDBEARD Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    so we found D'ni, then

    BEARD on
  • Cilla BlackCilla Black Priscilla!!! Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Holy fuck that cave is amazingly cool.

    Cilla Black on
  • BeastehBeasteh THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULARegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Han Son Doong means 'Mountain River Cave'

    pretty descriptive, those Vietnamese

    Beasteh on
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    vietnamese is such a crazy language to me

    but that's mostly because it's tonal

    PiptheFair on
  • redheadredhead Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Vann Diras wrote: »
    AMP'd wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    what the fuck is this

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones

    goddamn miracles

    the fuck

    redhead on
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    redhead wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Vann Diras wrote: »
    AMP'd wrote: »
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Sailing_stones_3.jpg

    yeah okay these fuck with my shit

    what the fuck is this

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing_stones

    goddamn miracles

    the fuck

    fuck nature

    PiptheFair on
  • lostwordslostwords Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    vietnamese food is the best goddamn food genre

    lostwords on
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  • Centipede DamascusCentipede Damascus Ho! Ho! Ho! Drink Coke!Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    oh man I want to visit these caves

    why can't awesome stuff like that be within driving distance

    Centipede Damascus on
    bluesky/tumblr
    eZB497F.jpg
  • BeastehBeasteh THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULARegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Centipede Damascus wrote: »
    oh man I want to visit these caves

    why can't awesome stuff like that be within driving distance

    because then it would be full of garbage and corpses

    Beasteh on
  • ApollohApolloh Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    lostwords wrote: »
    vietnamese food is the best goddamn food genre

    Thai

    Apolloh on
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  • Centipede DamascusCentipede Damascus Ho! Ho! Ho! Drink Coke!Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    hey there's some lava caves around here, and there's hardly any corpses in them

    Centipede Damascus on
    bluesky/tumblr
    eZB497F.jpg
  • AMP'dAMP'd Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Apolloh wrote: »
    lostwords wrote: »
    vietnamese food is the best goddamn food genre

    Thai

    :^:

    AMP'd on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • VALVEjunkieVALVEjunkie Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    goddamn nature is so fucking amazing

    VALVEjunkie on
  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Apolloh wrote: »
    lostwords wrote: »
    vietnamese food is the best goddamn food genre

    Thai

    french

    #pipe on
    JvTDS.png
    Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
  • #pipe#pipe Cocky Stride, Musky odours Pope of Chili TownRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    maybe italian

    or mexican

    they're all pretty good.

    #pipe on
    JvTDS.png
    Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
  • UrielUriel Registered User regular
    edited January 2011
    #pipe wrote: »
    Apolloh wrote: »
    lostwords wrote: »
    vietnamese food is the best goddamn food genre

    Thai

    french

    'Murrican

    Uriel on
  • BeastehBeasteh THAT WOULD NOT KILL DRACULARegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    roast beef with yorkshire pudding crispy spuds and lashings of horseradish

    english food is the bestevez

    Beasteh on
  • WeaverWeaver Breakfast Witch Hashus BrowniusRegistered User regular
    edited January 2011
    Those stones

    Is there any way to see a top-down view of that valley floor with the recorded tracks made by the stones marked for easy viewing?

    Weaver on
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