This article is from WeChat official account:Bring science home (ID: steamforkids), of: Liubo Dan, head of FIG Origin: IC photo
A map from more than 30 years ago went viral on the Internet, and people followed the picture and went to this underground world that no one had set foot in for thousands of years to explore and create art. The cave’s adventure video has exceeded 10 million views.
This cave is the “Hell Cave” (HELL HOLE).
Binky the Wonder Dog drew a map in 1989, and then the map triggered a large number of wonder hunters to the “Hell’s Cave.”
Before 1989, “Hell Caves” were mostly called “IXL Caves”. Afterwards, cave explorer Binky renamed “IXL” to “Hell Caves” and gave various places weird names.
At the beginning, this map was only circulated within the circle of cave explorers, who were tight-lipped about the existence of the cave. But around 2000, this mysterious map was uploaded to the Internet. Since then, more and more people have been attracted to hell caves. Because Binky drew the map in the last century, there is almost no news about him on the Internet, and these strange names on the map have also become unsolved mysteries, which makes the Hell Caves more secret and terrifying.
The narrow and complicated underground space of the Hell Caverns is only one person wide, needs to crawl forward, and has a vertical downward passage, making it difficult to pass. (Source: Stay Jonesin)
Maybe deep into the cave, we can understand the reason for the name of the hell cave…
“Hell” entrance
The entrance to the Hell Cave is located in Wilder Ranch State Park in California, USA, surrounded by woods and cliffs. And because it is close to the Pacific Ocean, the climate is humid, and the caves are covered with moss, and people often fall and get injured.
The entrance of the cave was once blocked by an iron gate cast by the government to prevent unrelated persons from entering. However, iron gates are always destroyed by humans. Now the iron gate only retains the door frame as a “height limit bar” to prevent people who are too big from entering the cave because they will get stuck in the narrow place in the cave.
The entrance to the Hell Cave is nothing but a small hole at the bottom of the mountain. Who would have thought it would stretch hundreds of feet deep underground. (Source: SWED Squad)
Once you enter the cave, it is difficult to look back. Because behind the entrance of the cave is a narrow tunnel, only enough for one person to crawl in, unable to turn back halfway. People descend slowly in the tunnel, and there is only endless darkness in the limited field of vision. In the claustrophobic space, the explorer can only hear his own rapid breathing and feel the cold touch of the stone, as if he is in the esophagus of a giant beast, being squeezed into his abdomen a little bit by it. ThisA tunnel that is more than ten meters long often takes 20 to 30 minutes to reach its end.
Enter the cave (Source: Harrison Brown)
Suddenly open up
Through the narrow tunnel, the field of vision suddenly widened, only to realize that there is a cave in the cave, and explorers can finally escape from the squeeze of the rock formations in the “banquet hall”(Party room) took a breath. The origin of the name of the cave may be due to the tradition of nearby college students having parties in the cave. There are many stalactite decorations in the banquet hall, which is magnificent. People in it will only feel their own insignificance. The spacious “banquet hall” forms a sharp contrast with the small tunnel at the entrance.
The explorer enters the cave through a small “skylight” above the “banquet hall”, and the space is suddenly widened. (Source: PeaksforFreaks)
After a short break in the “banquet hall”, the explorer will experience the narrowest part of the cave-the “birth canal”(Birthing canal). Crawling in the birth canal is like re-experiencing the hardships of birth, pushing yourself out of the narrow and shoulder-width tunnel.
Inside the “Birth Canal” (Source: PeaksforFreaks)
Picture of the narrowest part of Hell Cavern (Source: grinchenko.org)
The reason why Hell Cave has so many narrow areas is mainly related to the way it was formed. Its location in Santa Cruz, California is a typical karst(KARST)< /span>The terrain is mainly composed of limestone, dolomite, gypsum and other carbonate rocks.
The geological map of the city of St. Goluz, in which the deep purple is limestone. (Source: cityofsantacruz)
Drip water can penetrate rocks, Rain water contacts carbon dioxide during the fall process and becomes a slightly acidic solution (the main component is hydrogen carbonate Calcium), this solution will dissolve carbonate rocks. As time accumulates, the underground carbonate rocks are slowly dissolved and expanded little by little until a cave that can be entered is formed, and it takes tens of thousands of years to dissolve. So it is not easy for the cave to reach the point where people can crawl through.
Tunnel only for people to crawl forward (Source: Wikimedia commons)
When the cave is dissolved and expanded to a certain extent, it will collapse, and then the rain will continue to dissolve the collapsed fragments, continuously changing the topography in the cave, and so on.
Rain water corrodes underground rocks to form caves (Source: C’est pas sorcier)
From the “hall” to the “hell”
After “rebirth” from the “birth canal”, the explorer came to the “hall” (“Main Hall”), from From here, the cave passage will be vertically downward for more than fifty meters, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa can be placed in this abyss. There are various cliffs, caves and small animal nests on the way, and novice adventurers can easily get lost here. Getting lost tens of meters underground is the most terrifying thing. Imagine being alone in an isolated underground cave. If you accidentally fall into the abyss, you will sleep in the dark cave forever.
The complex internal structure in the Hell Cavern (Source: Stay Jonesin)
Because of lack of experience and insufficient protection measures (bring helmets, special clothing and medical kits, etc.), in 2003, a 18 Year-old explorers bury their young lives in the “Hell Cavern”. Since then, there have been news reports of the deaths and injuries in the Hell Caves from time to time.
Someone used the “Yosemite Grading System”(YDS, Yosemite Decimal System) to rate the difficulty of exploring the Hell Caves(Level 1 is the easiest, level 3 is the most difficult). From the picture below, you can see that most of the routes of “Hell Cave” are of medium to high difficulty, and the distance is extremely long, which is a great test for the endurance of explorers. It takes about 8 hours to complete the planned route in the figure below, and more than 12 hours to fully explore the Hell Caverns.
Plan route and difficulty level (Source: peaksforgeeks)
The abyss in the Hell’s Caverns with a huge vertical drop, where a fall is impossible. (Source: peaksforfreaks)
From the “Deep Hole of Hell” (Hole to Hell) downwards, the smooth rock walls around have almost no footholds, and the explorers can only tight Grasp the rope tightly and let yourself be slowly submerged in the darkness. Most of the ropes in the expedition were left by the predecessors, which provided a lot of convenience for the later explorers.
Deep Hole of Hell (Source: MVRK DMND)
Through the rope, after reaching the first foothold, you canEnter the “pond” on the side (The pool) and the most famous landscape of Hell Cave-“Face Hall”(“Hall of Faces”). It is said that many years ago, a cave explorer and clay sculpture artist installed his work on the bottom of the cave several times and formed the current face hall. The faces of these clay sculptures are all distorted, like evil spirits, and like sinners punished in hell, there are hundreds of them. At a depth of fifty meters underground, explorers began to witness the “hell” scene with their own eyes.
Face Hall (one of them looks like Altman) (Source: grinchenko.org)
Little Devil Clay Sculpture
Terracotta Warriors? (Source: MVRK DMND)
Continue down from the “Hall of Faces”, which is the bottom of the Hell Cave. “Evil Satan Statues” and “Stern Temples and Statues” are all located here. There is a booklet at the bottom of the cave. Those who reach the bottom of the cave can get the honor and leave their name on the booklet. This legendary booklet has been filled with dozens of pages.
The booklet at the deepest part of the Hell Cave
However, as more and more people go to the Hell Cave, its natural landscape has also been destroyed. Many people will stalactites in the cave(Stalactite) Break off and take it home as a souvenir, and these stalactites may take thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years to recover.
Destroyed stalactites (Source: fs.usda.gov)
Stalactites are slowly forming in a cave in St. Goluz, where the “Hell Cave” is located. (Source: KQED SCIENCE)
The formation of stalactites is somewhat opposite to the formation of caves. After rainwater and rocks form a calcium bicarbonate solution, it drips from the cracks. Due to the sudden change in pressure in the environment, carbon dioxide escapes, and the calcium bicarbonate becomes calcium carbonate again and precipitates. It takes thousands of years to form stalactites.
Calcium bicarbonate solidified into calcium carbonate to form the chemical formula of stalactite
The “balance art” produced by some artists around the Hell Cave is an excellent expression of the balance between art and nature. (Source: Lauren McEvoy)
These intruders look for excitement in the caves of hell, thinking they are experiencing an adventure. But the fact may be the opposite. Just in 2020, because of a revised map of Hell’s Cave, Bink