

New cave found in Vietnam: "A skyscraper could fit" - cwan
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/peter-photography

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erreon
It's amazing and kind of freaky how often explorers still find new things on
Earth. I cannot wait for more money to be spent on undersea exploration.

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frou_dh
That's gorgeous. Reminds me of the kind of scenes you see in adventuring video
games, only more intricate.

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cubicle67
I just hope no one in Hollywood sees these and decides that'd be a cool
location for a movie

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CamperBob
Does anyone even bother to shoot on location anymore?

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cubicle67
I was thinking of the movie "The Beach" when I wrote that. As I remember,
hollywood execs decided the idyllic location (a remote Thai beach) wasn't
idyllic enough, and bulldozed large sections of it to improve it

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TGJ
It's almost painful to see them drilling holes into the rock face. I
understand the need but a part of me wants to get all greenpeace and kick the
human invaders out.

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shimonamit
Yes, it was a sour-face moment when I saw that. In fact I came back to HN to
see if anyone else saw it. The hidden majesty and serenity of nature, suddenly
revealed, is defiled by our invasive devices.

~~~
alex_stoddard
And yet that majesty and serenity only really exist when we can see it and
access it. As others have said it would be bad to turn it into a theme park
but simple exploration demands some "invasive" measures.

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rickmode
A real-life "Center of the Earth"!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Journey_to_the_Center_of_the_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Journey_to_the_Center_of_the_Earth)

~~~
rue
There's also the cave-related
[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Descent_(...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Descent_\(novel\))
which I quite enjoyed.

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kylelibra
Isn't this part of the plot of Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptonomicon>

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WildUtah
That was in the Philippines. Totally different.

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wyclif
There are a lot of caves in the Philippines that were used by the Japanese
when the Imperial Army was routed by US/Filipino forces. Recently I was on the
island of Bohol where we went mountain climbing and found a cave with Japanese
pottery shards still on the floor.

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jcfrei
I wonder how they took the pictures. Was there enough light in the cave thru
some holes in the ceiling? Did they install huge lamps or did they use a very
long exposure (seems unlikely by looking at the people).

either way stunning and surreal photographs!

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ramidarigaz
I think a really bright flash is sufficient.

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pmjordan
Not for that sort of size. Light intensity drops at inverse square of
distance, reflected light intensity falls off at up to 1/r^4. I suspect a
combination of massive floodlights and long/multiple exposure.

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wiredfool
Actually, they _are_ probably using multiple really freaking bright flashes,
or rather flash bulbs. There are still some around that blow away anything
else you can get down into a cave for a power/size ratio. Think streetlight
sized bulbs filled with magnesium.

There's probably some light painting going on as well with (bright)
flashlights and long exposures.

The 1/r^4 really only applies if the light is coming from the camera position,
and is unfocused. If you're illuminating the subject from another location,
the only worry you really have is the 1/r^2 from the source to the lit object.

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veb
Oh wow at the Jungle inside it... that's pretty amazing. I don't think I've
ever seen such a beautiful cave.

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jarin
Amazing natural wonder. Although I will say that a small part of me wants to
see it transformed into a real-life version of Ironforge.

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andreyf
_Although I will say that a small part of me wants to see it transformed into
a real-life version of Ironforge._

One would hope that labor laws would prevent you from building something of
the sort via manual labor, but what about robots of some sort?

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shkb
Nice 3D fly-through. Nat geo also made a documentary about surveying the cave
(World's Biggest Cave).

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-iZ6WJeqhE>

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harscoat
Even after reading the text version, wondering how come these caves were not
discovered before, especially after such a military focus on the region.

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smhinsey
I'm confused because I have seen old episodes of Explorer and similar shows
about them. I'm trying to figure out if it was the same chain of caves or not,
but I remember a show dedicated to one cave system that had been turned into a
massive fortress that the US basically had no choice but to ignore during the
Vietnam war.

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chanux
Brings back memories. I've been in a similar (very) small scale limestone cave
in Sri Lanka.

The entrance, the great wall, the waterfall and the cactus garden were some
_very_ similar to what I see in photos. Unfortunately I couldn't take any good
pics with the point and shoot and the flash light I had at the time. Above the
cave was a forest with huge trees. There was a stream going through the cave
and in rainy season it makes it impossible to go inside the cave, just like in
'Hang Son Doong'.

Sorry for the useless rant. I was too excited :)

Some not so detailed pics of Wawulpana I found in the Internet.
<http://pics.kathe13.de/thumbnails.php?album=40>

And some more information
<http://www.srilankanwaterfalls.net/waterfalls/wawulpana.htm>

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slacker2
I would love to find the set of pictures in hi-res.

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Mithrandir
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2054401>

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joshfraser
Beautiful. This is the first time I've ever wanted to visit Vietnam.

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prawn
Get over there - worth seeing. Don't miss Halong Bay:

<http://www.google.com.au/images?q=halong+bay>

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epochwolf
The photo gallery requires flash which my iPad does not have. :(

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B79
Try these jpg files:

[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/01-vietnam-cave-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/02-rapel-vert-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/03-largest-subterrainian-passage-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/04-jungle-inside-cave-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/05-phong-nha-bang-mist-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/06-hang-en-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/07-headroom-shrinking-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/08-fluted-limestone-wall-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/0...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/09-forest-cave-entrance-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/10-greenery-rimstone-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/11-rare-cave-pearls-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/12-algae-skinned-maze-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/13-han-son-doong-skylight-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/14-passing-great-wall-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/15-great-wall-vietnam-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/16-waterfall-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/17-passable-dry-season-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/18-hang-loong-con-714.jpg)
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/1...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/img/19-stalagmites-714.jpg)

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t3rcio
It's like a Prehistoric cenaries

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rrival
This isn't reddit

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tptacek
New scientific discoveries are virtually always germane to HN.

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secretasiandan
A link to the article text rather than the photo gallery might be more
appropriate

[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2011/01/largest-
cave...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2011/01/largest-cave/jenkins-
text)

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jameskilton
Link that doesn't try to print the page:
[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-
cave/jenki...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/largest-cave/jenkins-
text)

