Jewel of the Underground
- By Peter Tyson
- Posted 10.01.02
- NOVA
On Memorial Day, 1986, at the bottom of a small cave in New Mexico's Guadalupe Mountains, a group of cavers broke through a rubble pile into a long, downward-sloping passage. It proved to be the entrance shaft to one of the largest, deepest, and most fantastically decorated caves in the Americas. In this slide show, take a peek inside Lechuguilla, as the cave is known. This may be the only peek you’ll get: To preserve its pristine nature, the National Park Service keeps the cave closed to the public.
Launch Interactive
Explore Lechuguilla Cave, one of the most magnificently decorated caverns in the Americas.
This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program The Mysterious Life of Caves.
Sources
Credits
Images
- (opening image, cave pearls, Lake Chandalar, Hoodoo Hall, Lake Louise, Chandelier Graveyard)
- Photographed by Sura Ballmann and Urs Widmer
- (pit in Glacier Bay, Chandelier Ballroom, Underground Atlanta, Oasis pool, Nirvana, aragonite frostwork, coralloids)
- Photographed by Sura Ballmann, Kevin Downey, and Urs Widmer
Related Links
-
Journey Into Lechuguilla Cave
Journalist Michael Ray Taylor describes his overnight excursion hundreds of feet down into this otherworldly cavern.
-
How Caves Form
Watch as rainwater, waves, lava, and bacteria create four different types of caves.
-
The Lives of Extremophiles
Microbiologist and caver Diana Northup delights in “snottites” and other microbes that live where nothing else can.
-
Secrets in the Salt
Salt deposits that formed 250 million years ago hold tantalizing hints of early life.
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