WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Caving Works 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:03.560 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh, and for this week's s 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:06.800 Y s K Selects, I've chosen our episode on caving. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:10.560 We had already done an episode on bio speleology, which 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.119 is about animals that live in caves. We kind of 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.560 touch on that too, But this is all of the 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:20.160 ins and outs. If you'll excuse the unintentional pun about caving, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:22.600 um and you are going to love it. It's just 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.880 a great, thorough classic example of stuff you should know. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:31.440 So check it out. Starting now, Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:42.000 Should Know, a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.280 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Um. I'm 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:48.159 an m C of sorts, not the cool kind, the 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.440 boring kind with me as always as MC Charles W 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.160 Chuck Bryant. He's the same kind of m C that 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.440 I am. Sum no, no, not even we're not even 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:01.560 suck mcs were two square for that even it's so sad. 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.119 Maybe sucker mcs, but certainly not with an Ayah, I'm 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:09.360 a sucker, right, MC, yeah, too square to be a sucker. 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:12.399 That is a T shirt. Well I'll bet it is 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:17.000 now number two the square shape, uh number two the 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:19.840 letter b or two squared two with two to the 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.960 second power to square to be a sucker. Yeah, that's it. Yep, 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.559 you've pretty we've reached the point where you say stuff 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.920 and people make t shirts of it. One of these though, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:31.399 we're gonna hit it rich and we can quit this 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.240 whole podcast in game, retire on our never fortune, never 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:42.600 will be rich old man podcasting still if only uh, hey, Chuck, Hey, 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.880 are you doing well? Yeah? You know, I think, um, 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.840 I remember that you actually have done this before, what 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:52.200 we're about to talk about. I have, um and uh, 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.160 you had a good time, didn't too. Yeah. I'll be 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:56.400 offering my personal insights along the way. But I was 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.600 hoping so that's what I was getting at. Um. Hey, 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:03.040 so I this article in Slate. It's called America's Ancient 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:07.040 Cave Art. And back in the late seventies, there were 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:08.880 a couple of friends who worked for the U. S. 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.440 Forestry Service and I think Tennessee, and um, they were 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.040 running around, um the forest and they found a cave 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.160 and they started to explore it and they went into 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.160 it and they noticed like there were all these weird 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.000 like scratches on the wall. And when they looked a 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:26.640 little closer, like, wait, that's not a scratch, that's a 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:31.120 snake with horns, and that's a bird that like is 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:33.720 tearing the head off of something else. And one of 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.480 them luckily realized that these are all images associated with 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:42.480 what's called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, or more coolly named 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.640 the Southern Death Cult, which sprung up around the southeastern 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.560 United States inexplicably about years ago. There's like this, um 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:52.919 what what the author of the article called a religious 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.040 outbreak that they have no idea where it came from. 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.560 But um, the weird thing about this is that they 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:04.000 these these drawings were completely preserved, like you could still 0:03:04.040 --> 0:03:08.000 smear the charcoal. Um they and even though they were 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.440 anywhere from five and then they found some others that 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.280 are up to like six thousand years old, and they're 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.480 all in this enormous elaborate cave system in the southeastern 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:22.080 United States, specifically the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. UM. But 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.200 what's most remarkable, aside from their preservation, is that some 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.640 of these are like a mile into the cave. So 0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:33.320 some of the Mississippian people were running around walking a 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.720 mile into a cave to like leave this art and 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.080 it was perfectly preserved, even though almost every other trace 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:43.760 of this religious outbreak, the Southern Death Cult is just gone. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.560 And that cool. That's awesome. So I bring that up 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:49.680 because that is one of the big reasons that people 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.280 go caving, which ultimately is entering a cave. Once you 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.400 walk into a cave, you're caving, right, Yeah, I think so. 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.360 Uh one, Southern Death Cult the original name of the 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:03.240 cult the band, Yes, it was, and they changed it 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.920 so much better. Well, I mean, that's one of the 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:11.240 coolest names that anyone's ever come up with, and it's 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.840 an archaeological term. Yeah, so it's got just you know, 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:19.440 academic meaning as well. All right, Well, aside from the 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:21.599 poor name change, I like the band. Yeah, it's a 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.560 good band. I used to you don't like him anymore? Well, 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:26.920 I mean it's just that sort of represented like high 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.280 school to me in early college. They still hold up. Yeah, 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:32.400 it's not like I don't like it. I got you know, 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.600 Billy Duffy plays a main guitar. Al right, so spelunking. 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:39.480 Should we go ahead and get this out of the way. 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:43.040 That's that's another word for caving, But um been't they're 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:47.479 an atari game names blanker. I think so, But cavers 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.240 don't really use that term a lot. They use it derogatorially. Yeah, 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:54.919 I think that is the case. I'm trying to remember 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.400 because I went caving, like you said, go ahead and 0:04:57.480 --> 0:04:59.360 set that up for the rest of the show. With 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:03.120 my former neighbor Um, who was a fan of the show. 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:05.560 Former neighbor, did you guys have a spat? We don't 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:10.160 talk anymore. I refused to acknowledge his president. No, he moved, Um. 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.360 But the other way that happened, yeah, yeah, he Um. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:14.520 He lived across the street and Um left a letter 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.040 in my mailbox one day and was like, hey, dude, 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:18.920 I heard you mentioned it might have been after the 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:23.719 biospi speleology, which we'll touch on it again. Said I'm 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.200 a experienced caver. Me and my buddy would love to 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.000 take you and you guys too, you and yeah, yeah, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.000 we were invited. Originally it was all four of us, 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:33.960 and it ended up being just me. Right the day came, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.559 I was like, let's see crawl around in the cold 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.720 in a cave, get wet and muddy. I'm gonna stay 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:41.520 home boy. After I did it, I was like, I'm 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:44.280 so glad Emily and you, Me and Josh didn't come. 0:05:45.200 --> 0:05:46.960 Just you guys wouldn't like that. Yeah, there's a good 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.719 picture of you on Facebook where you're covered in mud. Yeah, 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:52.960 I'll post more pictures when this comes out, but um yeah, 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:54.360 I'll touch on it as we go. But the first 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:56.360 thing I want to point out is that a cave 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.719 can be a thing that you picture when you picture 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.000 a cave, which is like you're walking along and there's 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.839 a big, huge entrance that you're looking at and you 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.599 walk in, or in this case, it can be a 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.400 little hole in the ground, which is when I walked by, 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.440 I was like, that, that's where we're going, and he 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.839 was like yeah. I was like, really, it's like a 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.320 two foot little hole in the ground. Yeah, it looked like, um, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.680 maybe a place where foxes live. Yeah, and he's like, 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:22.960 now that's how you get in there. I was like, okay, 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:24.880 and you're like, that's how you get in their pal 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:28.960 But it ended up being, aside from the most physically 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.320 challenging thing I've ever done, one of the coolest things 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:34.520 I've done. It was very difficult, but you, I mean, 0:06:34.520 --> 0:06:36.120 you nail it on the head. A cave is basically 0:06:36.200 --> 0:06:40.920 any opening from the surface below ground, Yeah, into the earth, 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.280 right and um. For the most part, when we think 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:46.080 of a cave, it's part of something called the Karst landscape, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:52.000 which is characterized by like sink holes, underground aquifers, um, 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:57.839 subterranean drainage, caves, a cave system. That's part. That's it's 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:02.039 technically called a Krst escape. Yeah. And well once you 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:03.479 read that, you kind of take it for granted, but 0:07:03.480 --> 0:07:05.400 if you never really thought about it. I hadn't never 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:06.839 thought about it. I was like, well, why are these 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.200 caves even here? You know, someone didn't come in here 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:12.520 and carve these out. No, but some natural processes too, 0:07:12.720 --> 0:07:16.080 That's right. There's actually um four main ways that caves 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.560 are created, right, Yeah. Most caves um are limestone caves. 0:07:20.920 --> 0:07:23.800 And you get those when rainwater uh seeps down through 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.120 the soil, picks up some c O two along the 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.480 way and that forms carbonic acid, which is kind of 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.800 weak it is, but if you if you have carbon 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:36.840 carbonic acid present in the same area for eons, yeah, 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.480 it's going to eventually eat away at even stone, Yeah, 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.360 like limestone, and that's basically what happens. It either collects 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.640 there for a long time or is UM rushed in 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:52.400 there by rain and uh, corrosion, Yeah, is what happens. 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:57.000 It's erosion through abrasion. Through abrasion just basically rainwater running 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.760 over something long enough, it's gonna erode it. And that 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.960 it's how you get a cave one way. Yeah, that's 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.080 the that's the main way. I think. UM, you've got 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:08.240 extreme of files, which is kind of cool. We're still 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:10.560 we're starting to realize, you know, I think we talked 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.360 about them in the are we all Marson's episode? Yeah, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:15.200 we have an article on extreme of files that I 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.680 have earmarked for us. That's pretty good. Um. They are 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:25.120 basically bacteria that live and thrive in um toxic environments, 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.680 like places where nothing else lives. High sulfuric content, are 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.240 really high temperatures, are really really low temperatures. Just yeah, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.760 they're the only things that live there. UM, and they 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.160 are starting to realize that they have a pretty big 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:41.719 impact on cave formation. For example, there's some that UM 0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:45.600 like to eat oil underground. I never knew this, And 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.640 they eat and eat, and then they shoot ducks of 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.400 sulfi gas, right, and the sulfi gas goes up and 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.560 up and up as gases wants to do and uh, 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.320 it travels through um the through groundwater picks up oxygen 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.839 and becomes sulfuric acid, and that really starts to eat 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.000 away at caves. Yeah. That's probably more so, I think 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.160 than chronic. Yeah, which is you probably want to look 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:13.360 out for the sulfuric acid lake in a cave system 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:15.840 if you're ever caving, I would say so. Yeah, so 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:19.640 that's number two. Um, see sea caves. You'll see a 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:21.840 lot um. If you ever do sea kayaking and stuff 0:09:21.840 --> 0:09:23.959 around the island, you might venture into a sea cave. 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.760 It's pretty cool. Um. They are basically just water pounding 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:32.000 away at the seaside cliffs to the point where they 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:35.480 form caves. Pretty easy. Yeah. Did you ever see The 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:40.520 Orphanage the Gearmo del Toro movie. No, dude, you've not 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.200 seen that. I almost watched it last week. That is 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:47.560 one of the best ghost movies ever made. Yeah. I 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.160 was by myself and I wanted to watch something scary 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:54.480 because it was how and I searched around on the 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.160 internets for like, what's a really good scary movie, not 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.480 some crappy scary movie, and that was on the list, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:02.840 and I ended up searching and researching for so long, 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.040 and I didn't watch anything. I went to sleep. You 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:08.520 should have asked me or go on to the social 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.400 media's Like once, I was like a Christmas scary movies 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:14.280 and got in a conversation with Joe Randazzo and like 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.400 a couple of other people and ended up with this 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.319 list of like great horror movies and all of them 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.920 panned out awesomely. The Devil Have you seen that? Dude? 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:27.920 That was another one recommended. But dude, it is it's 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.080 just like the Spanish Civil War era orphan No, no no, no, 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.920 that's um what is that one called? I know, the 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.719 one you're talking about, Devil's Backbone? Yes, I saw that one. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.480 That's okay. Compared to the orphanage, it might as well 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.679 have been like Peewee's Playhouse. Hey, I like Peewee. No, 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.560 I mean as far as light Fair goes. Ah. Yeah, okay, 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.240 it's just so much better. I'm watching it. Yeah, and 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:53.240 watch Us to the Devil too. It's pretty good, all right. 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.000 I think you like that a lot. Yeah, I don't. 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:57.680 I like good scary. I don't like all that crappy 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:02.400 saw like stuff. You like shocking torture porn crap. I 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.160 liked the first couple sauce alright, So that's the third 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.400 wave that caves are well, that was a good one. 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:13.040 The fourth um is lava tubes. You know, when lava 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.880 comes up through a volcano and it shoots up, if 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.920 the conditions are right, the outer part will cool more 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.320 quickly than the creamy, gooey middle. Uh. And when that 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.440 happens that our shell will come together and form this 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.600 coherent crust, and the stuff in the middle might fall 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.280 back down. Right, you get yourself a tube. You have 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.160 a tube of lava. Now if at the top of 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:40.319 this that that top caves inner crumbles, all of a sudden, 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.800 you have an entrance, and the lava tube is now 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:48.199 a cave, because again, cave is any entry from the 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:52.679 above ground to hell. I imagine the lava tube caves 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:57.559 are pretty interesting to explore. But I'm a limestone guy. Well, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:11:59.480 I mean, you don't spend much time in Hawaii. If 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:00.920 you did, I'll it you'd be a lot with tube 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:02.960 guy too. Yeah, you're probably right, all right. So once 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:04.920 you're in the cave, you're gonna notice a couple of 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:09.280 things straight away. Um, stillactites and stillag mites, okay, which 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.360 is which man, I feel like we have a golden 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:15.840 opportunity to explain this to thousands and thousands and hundreds 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.280 of thousands of people. It's very easy. There's a lot 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.959 of little ways you can remember. Maybe millions of people 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:23.840 still lack tights and that is where the C are 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:25.839 the ones that hang down. And you can remember that 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:30.240 by maybe hold on tight, stillack tight. They gotta hold 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:32.880 on tight, yeah, because it's not still lag tight and 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:38.600 still lag tight or stillag might and stillagmite. It's stillack 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.840 tight with a C and then still lag mighte with 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:44.679 a G and and M. So that helps too because 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.840 you have C for ceiling or G for ground. Great 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.400 there you just didn't or T for top. If that 0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:53.960 helps you, we give you three ways to remember this. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.320 I don't think that we're I don't. I think I 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.920 messed it up. This is so simple for a second 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:04.840 and then I I'm sorry everyone. So stalactites hang down. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:08.920 Stalagmites come up from the bottom. Uh. They are speliotherms, 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.840 which is a K formation. And this happens when um 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.480 carbonic acid eats away the limestone. It starts dripping the 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.080 calcite mineral from rainwater. Yeah, it's just kind of trickling 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.200 in and just centuries. Yeah. And as it is, it's 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:26.720 depositing that calcite, right, yeah. So it drips down from 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:29.360 the top, so it forms and then it will you know, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.720 not drip up, but collect and form up from the bottom. 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.160 Sometimes they'll meet and form a column, which is really cool. 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.640 But these things grow at a rate of a quarter 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.960 inch to an inch per century. Wow, So you can't 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:46.520 sit around and watch a stalactite form. That's basically the rule. 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:50.920 So the rainwater comes down and drips down, and whatever 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:55.800 deposits are at the top going down is a stalac tight, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.480 that's right. And it drifts down onto the ground and 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.480 builds a formation that grows up towards the top. Yes, 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.040 that's a stalag might and that's why you usually find 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:10.720 them together. And the last scene is actually the Greek 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.080 derivative and means to drip. Really, So there you have it. 0:14:16.120 --> 0:14:18.200 And uh, they did mention I look these up because 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:22.160 I've never seen them other uh speliotherms like fried eggs 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:25.320 and bacon. Did you look these up? It's pretty neat. 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:29.200 It looks like a fried egg. It's the formation. Yeah, 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:31.640 it looks like a you know, it's it's large and 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.320 round and has a center that's very round as well. 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.520 And then the bacon stuff, it looks like bacon strips. 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.640 It's like, you know, these little strip like formations that 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.560 have different colored patterns that look like, you know, the 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:46.080 fatty part of the bacon and the meaty part, and 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:47.880 it looks like fried eggs and bacon. So I feel 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.720 like I saw the Friday egg one before. Yeah, you 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:51.280 probably have. When I saw it, I was like, oh, 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.320 that's what that is, Oh, Frida eggs and bacon. I 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:58.560 had to see it because the the the name wasn't 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:01.720 descriptive enough. Yeah, and that's just this just proves that 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:33.640 speleologists are fun loving people, right m hm. So while 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:37.160 you're in the cave, you're probably going to run into 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.720 certain kinds of animals, and as speleologists love to do, 0:15:40.840 --> 0:15:43.480 they've classified these things in the categories, right. Yeah, we 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.520 talked about these in Biospeleology Creepy cave dwelling things. Yeah. 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:50.280 If you haven't heard that UM episode, go check it out. 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:52.760 It's all about caves and the stuff living in caves. 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:57.280 It's really cool. UM. But the truck lizines, those are 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:00.200 temporary visitors like a bear maybe hibernating and a cave. 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.760 It's they live most of their life outside of the 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:06.240 cave and coming for shelter food or like that. Then 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:08.840 there's a trougle of files that means they love the 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:12.520 trog they do. They spend most of their life there, 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:16.960 but they will come out some for food. Yeah, but 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:18.840 they spend most of their lives in the cave right. Yeah, 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:24.600 Salamander's crickets uh daddy along legs and other spiders love them. 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:28.160 And then there's the trougle of bites. Yeah, those are 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.040 ones who live their entire lives within the dark zone 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.280 of the cave and usually they don't have eyes, and 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:39.880 apparently without exception, they're all blind, like the Prometheus salamander. Yeah, 0:16:39.960 --> 0:16:43.680 I remember that thing, the Ozark blind salamander. The tooth 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.320 Cave spider, which isn't as creepy looking as it sounds. 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.200 I expected to see, like, you know, some something out 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:52.480 of a like B movie, but it was just a 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.440 little skinny spider. But if you name something the tooth 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:58.680 Cave spider, you'd expect some like really scary looking thing, yeah, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:02.480 or something with glasses in huge buck teeth. Yeah. Uh, 0:17:02.560 --> 0:17:05.240 same with the tooth cave beetle. And then and they're 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.399 also blind fish and shrimp and all manner of little white, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.240 creepy creatures. They lack pigment because they don't need it, 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:16.160 like screw pigment. What do we need that for? Um? 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.840 And then I this kind of stuck out to me, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:22.760 the idea that it's always the average annual temperature of 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:26.440 the surface above a cave within the cave. So if 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.000 it's the average temperature over the course of an entire 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.800 year in the spot above a cave is sixty degrees, 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.320 it's always sixty five degrees in the cave. Not true. 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.679 Oh that's not true. No, So this this the the 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.960 temperature is in a cave are very very stable. Um. 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.959 But you know, depending on how how deep it is. 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:47.520 Closer you get to the center of the earth, the 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.719 warmer it gets. So that has an effect. And just 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.440 like above ground with the sun warming, UM, the surface 0:17:55.880 --> 0:18:00.760 differently causes weather, different amounts of heat in inside a cave, 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.360 cause what we wouldn't recognize is weather but actual weather itself. 0:18:05.720 --> 0:18:09.640 So is this wrong? Yes, the way it stated, it's 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:13.640 always the average annual temperature. Yeah, but generally it is. Yeah, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.040 it's usually very stable and it's very close to that. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:19.239 But we're finding now that there is actual weather that 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.280 happens in a cave, just like there we found out 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.440 there's seasons on the bottom of the sea floor like that. 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.720 It seems like the same thing to us, but there's 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.280 actually like seasons and changes that we don't We didn't 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:33.840 recognize because you don't think of it that way. Uh, caves, 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:37.919 um sometimes can be dry and dusty. I guess it 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.480 all depends on where you are in the country. Um, 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.520 the one I went to, and like many caves are 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.560 wet and muddy, and I was not expecting that. I 0:18:46.640 --> 0:18:49.160 was not expecting a lot of what I encountered. Actually, really, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:51.960 you weren't. Were you prepared for a wet money? Oh yeah, 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:53.840 I mean they told me what to wear and we'll 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.639 get into all that stuff. But um, I just I 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:58.439 don't know. I thought it was gonna be walking into 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:01.960 a thing and then walking around, sort of like the 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.439 kid caves that you can take the whole family too. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.119 But um, yeah, it wasn't like that at all. It 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.959 was being dropped into a muddy, wet, cold hell yeah, 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.840 And you looked like it too, man afterwards, like you 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:17.480 were really glad to be top side again. It was 0:19:17.520 --> 0:19:21.320 weird coming out, I'll say that. So why did you go? 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.600 Why would anybody go? What's the allure of caving? Uh? 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:28.119 The unknown? In the thrill of discovery? Yes, well it's 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.520 true though, that's what the article says. But I don't 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.879 mean to be glib. It is very cool and way 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:37.439 different down there, Like you get a sense that it is. 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.199 It is not the same top side as it is 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.960 in the bowels of the earth. Very different place and 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.040 very cool to experience. Yeah, firsthand. And as we mentioned, 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:49.520 there's a lot of good opportunity for cave archaeology because 0:19:49.600 --> 0:19:52.880 the climate and temperature in a cave is so stable. 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:57.679 Things are things left in caves are really really well preserved. Yeah, 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.800 and you know they're the caves were a good place 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:03.040 for ancient rituals and things. And um, they mentioned that 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.720 the cave art in France. Yeah, let's have you seen 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:14.000 this stuff? Holy cal It's like it looks like artwork 0:20:14.040 --> 0:20:17.720 painted on canvas, some of it does. It's not like, 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.199 you know, just scratchy cave drawings. Like this stuff is 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:25.120 really beautiful and uh, they found this um in nineteen 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:29.120 forty they discovered this in France from the Paleolithic era, 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:34.320 seventeen and twenty years old and over two thousand figures drawn. 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.560 And it's like, from what I understand, like the granddaddy 0:20:37.560 --> 0:20:42.440 of all cave drawing scores was here in France. Here 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:44.920 in France, there in France. Well there's also another one 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:48.440 called Chauves Cave in France and that's what um Waren 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:52.919 or Herzog's Cave of Forgotten dreams is that you didn't, 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.120 I'll watch anything that he's in the or narrates at nting. 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.800 He's a bad guy and is it the new Bond? Now? 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:02.919 Is that right? Now? He's a bad guy in some 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:06.080 movie coming up? And I was like, oh, that's brilliant. Yeah, like, 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.480 no one sounds more diabolical than fronts All. Yeah, it's perfect. 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:11.600 Um but yeah, no, that's that's a good one too. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:13.159 And I think they shot it in three D as well. 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:15.960 It's supposed to be like really good. Um, but yeah, 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:19.320 check that one out. It's it's very interesting because they 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.040 figure out that, Um, they're like, why why would these 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:25.680 idiots draw bison with eight legs? Was there an eight 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:28.520 legged bison? Back then, and then somebody figured out that 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:32.280 if you look at it by by torchlight, not electric 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:35.320 torch but real fire torches, it move. It moves. Oh 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.440 my god, that is so cool. Yeah, wow, that's awesome. 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:41.639 Uh yeah, I highly recommend you guys go and google 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.719 image these um l A S C A U X 0:21:45.880 --> 0:21:48.359 France and it's all over the place. And what was 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.480 the other one chauves h u v e T. Yeah, 0:21:51.600 --> 0:21:53.920 very cool stuff. And cek have Forgotten Dreams if you're 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.640 into that. I mean, it's a lot of cattle drawings, granted, 0:21:57.359 --> 0:22:01.200 but um, you know, it's better than you would think. 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.760 You're right considering they're doing this on a cave twenty 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:08.760 years ago. Exactly right. Uh. There's also bio speleology, which 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.040 we talked about at length and we don't need to 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:15.200 really get into here again. Go listen to the biospeleology episode. 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.160 But that's another reason people go through caves. But ultimately, 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:19.919 I think like the first sentence was the right one. 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.680 It's like the thrill of discovery and unknown. Yeah, there's 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.800 so few people doing any actual caving and enough caves 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:29.480 out there that like you've got a pretty good shot 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.920