By: Cave Spelunking
You probably aren't ever going to see the inside of Lechuguilla Cave. A special permit is needed to enter the cave, and those special permits are given only to researchers. Lechuguilla Cave is located inside the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, but it is not open to visitors and the entrance to the cave is well hidden and well guarded.
If you could go, you'd have to rappel down a 90-foot rock face to a ledge and then squeeze down a narrow crevice into a small chamber. Inside this chamber is a 30-foot metal culvert. The culvert was installed after the wonders of the cave were discovered more than a decade ago. There's a airtight, sealed hatch to keep out surface contamination. Behind the culvert is the deepest cave in the United States. It's also where scientists and researchers are looking for life on Mars and the cure for cancer.
Lechuguilla Cave was not formed by water like most caves. This cave was formed from below, rather than from above. No bats or other animals live in the cave, so nothing is brought into it from the outside world.
Some amazing things have already been discovered. One such thing, for example, is bacteria that oxidizes minerals. Scientists say that the evidence "strongly suggests" that organisms derive energy from the rocks, and it also strongly suggests that similar life might well exist on Mars.
Mars and Earth were at one time very similar about four billion years ago. The atmosphere on Mars changed, and life on the surface of the planet (if there was life) was killed. But what about underground? The research being done in Lechuguilla Cave might prove that life can and even does still exist on Mars — underground, in caves!
Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.
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