Astronauts of the underworld: The scientists venturing into the deep, dark Earth
Blind spiders and whip scorpions, the future of climate change, photosynthesis in the dark – here's what the deepest places on Earth can reveal about life and the universe.
Seated, I slide through a curved tunnel of stone that glistens like the inside of a throat. I feel as if I am being swallowed as I disappear into the darkness of the underworld. I grab pustule-like stalagmite globules as I crawl, now on my knees. Spiked stalactites threaten to bite, while calcite capillaries scatter over the rock walls. Caves, Phil Short tells me, are "alive". They breathe – though their entrances are often small, they exchange gases with the outside world.
"Today's a hot day," explains Short, one of the world's foremost cave explorers and divers, and underwater missions lead at Deep Research Labs. "The atmospheric pressure outside is high – but yesterday was a cold day so the atmospheric pressure in here is low." If air pressure outside the cave is greater than inside, he says, air moves into the cave and vice versa. "Another day it might be freezing cold outside and still warm in here – and it breathes the other direction."
I squeeze my body through a gap – clambering on my hands, knees and stomach – until the slanted gash in the Earth opens into a small cavern. Perched on a rock, Short looks as comfortable as you or I might be slouched in a comfy armchair. And this might not be far from the mark, since he describes the Wookey Hole cave as his "spiritual home".
