Explorers Mapped Vietnam's 6.5-Km Sơn Đoòng as World's Largest Cave Passage

1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 16

A 2009 British-Vietnamese expedition surveyed Sơn Đoòng after local forest worker Hồ Khanh relocated the entrance he had first found in 1991.
Guinness lists the cave as the largest known single passage by overall dimensions, with sections about 200 meters high, 150 meters wide and at least 6.5 kilometers long.
An active underground river carved the chamber through limestone over roughly 2 million to 5 million years, and monsoon flooding still makes parts of the route unsafe.
Two roof collapses opened dolines that admit light and rain, creating jungle-like zones including the Garden of Edam, measured at more than 163 meters across.
UNESCO has warned that despite its scale, the protected cave remains vulnerable to tourism development and repeated human contact.

Sources

With 26 new caves just discovered, can Vietnam's 'Kingdom of Caves' be saved from being loved to death by tourism?

Beyond its colossal size, what scientific secrets about Earth's past could Sơn Đoòng's isolated ecosystem finally unlock?

Is Sơn Đoòng's elite, high-cost tourism the best way to protect it while benefiting the local Vietnamese community?

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