Krúbera-Voronya: The deepest cave in the world

Often when you think of the Earth’s surface you imagine it completely homogeneous, perhaps because of the constant images of a perfectly spherical planet. However, it is known that it is not an impeccable sphere. Previously it has already been described with an elliptical shape, although it is more accurate to say that it is a geoid. This implies that it has very outstanding reliefs and also large indentations, a gigantic ball with great differences in its surface. Everest is well known for having the highest altitude on the entire earth’s surface, but its counterpart, the world’s deepest cave known as the Krúbera-Voronya, is widely unknown.

Where is the Voronya Cave?

Located in Arabika, Georgia, the Krúbera-Voronya cave is the deepest in the world and the cleft that comes closest to the heart of the Earth. It is so extensive towards the bowels of the planet that man has not been able to explore it fully. When it was discovered in 1960, explorers did not venture deeper than 180 meters. Although since then the records have been expanding more and more.

Currently it has become a challenge for the most experienced speleologists who try to reach bottom. However, it seems that the cave is so majestic that even having reached 2,191 meters deep, they have not managed to discover its end.

But interesting facts about the Voronya cave have been discovered. The expeditions have revealed that it is not a linear cave as many would have imagined. Rather, it is more of an underground labyrinth full of complicated paths leading to different false bottoms. It is so complex that for its exploration they have had to set up underground camps in order to decipher its mysteries.

underground camps

The first team of speleologists to achieve this milestone was a Ukrainian team that in the late 1990s settled at -700 meters below the earth’s surface. Later the same Ukrainian team managed to reach 1,200 meters underground and set up a second camp. Once the -1000 meter barrier was crossed, the curiosity of speleologists from all over the world became an obsession to reach the end of the deepest cave in the world.

Little by little, various teams from around the world were discovering the ways to continue descending, since there are many areas where there is no way to continue. They have also discovered underground lakes more than 50 meters deep, which makes the search for the bottom even more difficult. Added to this are the extremely narrow sections that if you try to cross, any rescue would be in vain.

Even with all these dangers, at the end of 2004 a new historical record was reached. The UkrSA team managed to reach -2080 meters, a point known as ‘Game Over’ because it is the lowest point discovered so far and where apparently no further progress can be made. Although this has not been an impediment for Gennadiy Samokhin, who holds the record for the longest descent in the Voronya cave.

Image: Map of the cave system in Georgia.

Shamokhin continues the path not on foot, but using diving equipment to plunge into one of the lakes. He feat that allowed him to reach 2,191 meters below the earth’s surface, which is the most current record. As expected, it is not an easy path, it involves living for some time in the underground camps, crossing straits up to 40 centimeters wide that, if flooded, mean death. Even diving to later avoid the icy waterfalls that form as a result of the rain.

Although all these challenges have been traversed, cavers are still unclear on where the end of the cave is. It is likely that this geological wonder still has much more to amaze us. You just have to take a look at the Voronya map that seems to have no end.

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