
A Cavernous World under the Woods - sohkamyung
https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/the-cavernous-world-under-the-woods/
======
contingencies
World map of karst regions: [https://i2.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-
content/uploads/20...](https://i2.wp.com/www.circleofblue.org/wp-
content/uploads/2010/01/world-karst-map-web-1.12.jpg)

------
glennon
The study of karst groundwater should not be as esoteric as it is. About one
quarter of the world's population is either completely or partially dependent
on drinking water from karst (1). The United States is approximately 20% karst
landscapes with about 40% of the population affected.

At the same time, there are perhaps a few dozen authoritative scientists of
karst hydrology in the United States and Canada.

(1) Hartmann, Andreas & Goldscheider (2014). Karst water resources in a
changing world: Review of hydrological modeling approaches. Reviews of
Geophysics. 10.1002/2013rg000443

------
wtracy
“Keep asking questions like that and you will never get work in this field
again.”

Those words should never come from a government official in a democratic
country in any context.

Wow, just wow.

------
sandworm101
It isn't all some perfect word of pure water. Arsenic is often a problem when
drilling for potable water, even in rain-drenched places like Vancouver
Island.

Karst water is the deeper stuff. Municipal water supplies come from wells
drilled deep through karst. A great many people get their water from their
own, much shallower, wells.

~~~
glennon
People get their water from where ever they can get it -- whether shallow or
deep. Most people in the world (~75%) do not drink water from karst
groundwater, but compared to karst aquifers' spatial extents, two times more
people are affected than would be expected.

------
frankus
If you're ever in the area they do cave tours at Horne Lake. They're a pretty
far cry from the boardwalk-and-elevator stuff that's common in the US. More
like crawl on your stomach through a passage barely bigger than your body that
moments ago was full of water.

~~~
glennon
In the United States, the National Park Service has some fine 'wild cave'
tours. I have led several as a ranger at Mammoth Cave National Park, Wind Cave
National Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, and Carlsbad Caverns National
Park (Spider Cave & Hall of the White Giant). The Wild Cave tour at Mammoth
Cave can be fairly epic if the right guide leads it. These particular parks
also each have lantern-type tours that follow rustic, packed-dirt paths on
out-of-the way caves and trails. There are actually quite a few other unusual
cave tours on federal land throughout the United States, but I have less
experience with them (e.g., Round Spring Cave, Missouri; Lava Beds' Crystal
Ice Cave, California; Blanchard Springs Caverns, Arkansas; El Capitan Cave,
Alaska; Sequoia Nat'l Park's Crystal Cave, California).

Indeed, some of the most spectacular tourist cave experiences are
international, such as black water rafting in New Zealand, several eco-
adventure resorts in Belize, and 'adventure caving' in Malaysia
[http://mulupark.com/tours-activities/adventure-
caving/](http://mulupark.com/tours-activities/adventure-caving/)

One of my favorite 'normal' tourist caves is Jenolan Caves in Australia. To
get to the ticket office and parking lot, you drive through part of the
tourist cave.
[https://goo.gl/maps/aeyabQ3qMEQ2](https://goo.gl/maps/aeyabQ3qMEQ2)

