Looking For Life On Mars In A Cave

Looking For Life On Mars In A Cave
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.

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns
By: Cave Spelunking

Carlsbad Caverns are part of the Carlsbad Caverns National Park in Southwestern New Mexico, in the Guadalupe Mountains. Carlsbad Caverns is one of the best-known caves in the world. The show cave can be visited by the general public. You can walk down or take an elevator down to the Underground Lunchroom. The Underground Lunchroom is 750 feet underground and it is strictly a tourist attraction.

Walking or riding an elevator down 750 feet into the earth is an experience like no other, and it's as close as most visitors will ever get to spelunking or caving. Besides the Underground Lunchroom, there are 20 other named rooms in Carlsbad Caverns.

The named rooms in Carlsbad Caverns are the Balloon Ballroom, Bat Cave, Bell Cord Room, Bifrost Room, Big Room or The Hall of the Giants, Chocolate High, Green Lake Room, Guadalupe Room, Hall of the White Giant, King's Palace, Lake of the Clouds, Left Hand Tunnel, Mystery Room, New Mexico Room, New Section, Papoose Room, Queen's Chamber, Spirit World, Talcum Passage, and The Rookery. Those names sound so fascinating, and they are, but not nearly so fascinating as the rooms themselves.

Lechuguilla Cave was discovered in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in 1986. Lechuguilla Cave is not open to the public. It's been mapped to a depth of 489 meters, and that makes it the deepest limestone cave in the United States. The entrance is kept hidden to preserve the cave in its most undisturbed state so that researchers can uncover the mysteries hidden there.

Carlsbad Caverns is home to 16 different varieties of bats. There's a big population of Mexican Free-tailed Bats. Seeing the bats take flight at dusk is one of the attractions at Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

Rock On & Keep Spelunking...
Cave Spelunking.