Post Description

Planet Earth aflevering 4
size: 4.73 GB

Caves

This episode explores "Planet Earth"s final frontier": caves. At a depth of 400 metres (1,300 ft), Mexico"s Cave of Swallows is Earth"s deepest pit cave freefall drop, allowing entry by BASE jumpers. Its volume could contain New York City"s Empire State Building. Equally as impressive, we explore the otherworldly cenotes of the Yucatán Peninsula. Divers appeared to be flying in water as clear as in air, as they give us a glimpse of the hundreds of kilometers of these caves which have already been mapped. Also featured is Borneo"s Deer Cave and Gomantong Cave. Inhabitants of the former include three million wrinkle-lipped bats, which have deposited guano on to an enormous mound. In Gomantong Cave, guano is many metres high and is blanketed with hundreds of thousands of cockroaches  and other invertebrates. Also depicted are eyeless, subterranean creatures, such as the Texas blind salamander and ("bizarrely") a species of crab. Carlsbad Caverns National Park  is featured with its calcite formations. Mexico"s Cueva de Villa Luz is also featured, with its flowing stream of sulphuric acid and snottite  formations made of living bacteria. A fish species, the shortfin molly, has adapted to this habitat. The programme ends in New Mexico"s Lechuguilla Cave (discovered in 1986) where sulphuric acid has produced unusually ornate, gypsum  crystal formations. Planet Earth Diaries reveals how a camera team spent a month among the cockroaches on the guano mound in Gomantong Cave and describes the logistics required to photograph Lechuguilla. Permission for the latter took two years and local authorities are unlikely to allow another visit.

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De vierde aflevering bezoekt de grotten. Met een diepte 400 meter is de Mexicaanse Cave Of Swallows de diepste grot ter wereld. Het volume van deze grot is groot genoeg om het Empire State Building in te stoppen. Net zo indrukwekkend zijn de onderwatergrotten van de Yucatan Peninsula.