How and Why Cave Explorers Blast and Dig Underground Passages: A Comparative Perspective Across the USA

• In Event: STS Underground: Fieldnotes from the Pre-conference Workshop

Abstract

On July 14, 2012, a group of cavers (cave explorers, a.k.a. spelunkers) made an extraordinary discovery. They broke into what appeared to be a massive cavern in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. They did this, however, by digging down a plugged sinkhole with a rented Caterpillar 312B on the land of a farmer, who eagerly cheered on. Hand digging followed, aided by a technique called Micro-BlastingTM. As of this writing, the discovered cave system, known as Savannah Cave, has over a mile of explored and surveyed passage, with potential for more. The fact that cavers dig and blast to discover caves and push passages is controversial. In many ways, these practices defy the idea that caverns are natural phenomena. Some raise conservation concerns. Others dismiss it as unethical. Yet others insist that without it, critical karst resources would go unexplored and undocumented and thus risk not being conserved at all. New tools (such as Micro-BlastingTM) and presumably more pressure to locate so-called virgin passage in areas with long histories of exploration appear to be increasing the frequency and intensity of cave digging projects. This paper examines the history of this trend and current practices in the USA. Cave digging takes on different characters depending on the property regimes that govern underground access and exploration in different parts of the country. A broader historical view of human modification of karst environments provides context to this research.

Author

• Maria Alejandra Perez, West Virginia University