Tenglong Cave World's Largest Cave

[L Roebuck]

Tenglong Cave the World Largest Cave

Professor Yan Zhiwu at China University of Geosciences expressed in his recent published results of the united scientific research on the Tenglong cave that, after measured and compared with data of other large caves in China and in the world, the Tenglong cave in Lichuan City of Hubei Province covers an area of 230,000km2 and a volume of 15,750,000m3, being the world largest cave at present.

Article

[Azurerana]

Um, 213,000 km2 is an area equal to the entire state of Kansas-- 82,200 square miles.

What is holding it up?

The volume = 556 205 998.5 cubic feet. This would be a cube 822.4 ft on a side. Or roughly, 3 football fields laid end to end in each dimension.

Still seems a bit small to fit under all of Kansas.

I'd like to know how he came up with these figures. (And neglected a passage length.)

[L Roebuck]

What a cave, eah?

I have been yahooing for more information on this cave. One source says Tenglong Dong aka Teng Long Dong aka Soaring Dragon Cave was ranked 7th on the world's largest caves list.
Apparently not any more. Me thinks it is now #1!!! ;D

Here's a link to a Tenglong Cave description on showcaves.com

[dirtdoc]

Teng Long, China.

You have to know a bit about Chinese Tourism Bureaucracy psychology to interpret official press releases.

First of all, the Chinese tourism business is trying very hard to get as many of their tourist attractions into the Guinness Book Of Records as they possibly can. As a result, here is “occasionally” a questionable stretch in some of their news releases.

They don’t say “longest”, they say “largest” about Teng Long. That probably means that they are considering volume. But I have no idea how they are justifying that figure.

FYI the best general reference for Chinese cave data is the Hong Meigui (Red Rose) Cave Exploration Society.

www.hongmeigui.net/

This is a loose-knit group of international cavers, many British, more-or-less organized by Erin Lynch. Erin is a bright and energetic US caver who has moved to China, learned Mandarin, and adopted Brit ways, and lives mostly in Yangshuo. She will be in Kentucky at Chris Groves shop at Western Kentucky U working on a graduate degree, starting early this summer. There should be opportunities for Chinofile US cavers to meet her.

The Hong Meigui site lists Teng Long at a length of 33522m, but I know that recent explorations have increased this tremendously by connecting several systems.

At any rate, it is a damn big cave, even by Chinese standards.

DirtDoc

[Azurerana]

Thanks for the additional info, DirtDoc. Something smelled of 'tourism bragging' in this announcement, once I translated the area into something I could wrap my brain around. I suppose it would be rather difficult to compare cave volumes without a true 3-D survey-- which does not exist for most large cave lists.

Or like a sign in Meramec Caverns said next to a large non-swinging pendulum: "Beneath this spot lies the center of the earth."