Son Doong Cave, discovered by Ho Khanh in 1990, is recognized as the largest cave in the world in terms of volume and the largest cave in Vietnam. In 2009, the British-Vietnam Cave Expedition Team, led by Howard Limbert, officially surveyed and measured Hang Son Doong. The team concluded that it has a volume of 38.5 million cubic meters, making it the world’s largest natural cave. This measurement was accepted by renowned karst geologists, including Dr. Tony Waltham. National Geographic magazine also recognized Son Doong Cave as the largest natural limestone cave on Earth in the same year. In 2013, the Guinness World Records Organization officially recorded it as the world’s largest natural cave.
It is important to note that Son Doong Cave is often confused with Mammoth Cave, the world’s longest-known cave system, located in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, United States. Son Doong Cave is known for its sheer size and volume, while Mammoth Cave holds the record for being the longest cave system.
Traditionally, those who found the cave will name it. Therefore, Ho Khanh and the expert team discussed and decided to call the cave Son Doong (a combination of 2 words: Son means mountain, Doong is the name of the valley where the ethnic minority Bru Van Kieu lives, and the Thuong river coming from, or also means the cave in the limestone mountain with an underground river flowing through).
Unique features of Son Doong Cave
The Son Doong Cave has a total length of nearly 9 km long and the volume is up to 38.5 million cubic metres, which makes this cave the largest natural cave on the planet. With this volume, Hang Son Doong is 5 times larger than Deer cave in Malaysia, which was said to be the largest natural cave ( before Hang Son Doong was discovered) with 9.5 million cubic metres of volume. However, what makes Son Doong special, recognized and well-known by the world is the unique hidden underground world inside the cave itself. It has many complex and giant stalactites (over 80m high), primaeval rain forests growing inside the cave, its own ecosystem, weather or a mysterious underground river that no explorer has yet discovered to the end of it. Many visitors admitted that the Hang Son Doong Cave is like another world, Ginger Zee from ABC News’s – Good Morning America exclaimed that the sceneries in Son Doong were like those in the Avatar movie.
This amazing cave also houses an impressive ecosystem, inside the largest cave passage in the world. This huge and intricate cave system was created by the underground river, and filled with formations from the water that percolated down from a rainforest above. More of the highlights only found in this cave are:
- Hope and Vision Passage
- Underground River
- Fossil passage
- Doline 1 : watch our for dinosaurs
- Doline 2 : Garden of edam
- Cave Pearls
- Passchendaele passage
- The great wall of Vietnam
Son Doong cave discovery and survey timelines
- Early December 1990: Mr Ho Khanh on a jungle trip discovered the cave entrance, later known as Son Doong Cave.
- April 07, 2009: Ho Khanh took The British Vietnam Cave Expedition Team led by Mr Howard Limbert to survey and measure the cave. Peter MacNab was the first person to step inside.
- April 14, 2009: The cave was named and announced as the largest natural one in the world by The British Vietnam Cave Expedition Team.
- March 17, 2010: The exploring team climbed the Great Wall of Vietnam of the biggest cave in the world and exited the cave, completing the survey with a length of nearly 9 km and a volume of 38.5 million cubic meters. Son Doong Cave was declared by National Geographic TV as the largest natural cave in the world.
- If these caves were connected, the volume of Hang Son Doong cave in Vietnam would be increased by 1.6 million cubic metres.
- March 31, 2019: Howard Limbert and well-known cave diving experts such as Martin Holroyd, Rick Stanton, Jason Mallinson, and Chris Jewell carried out a dive exploration into the underground river inside Son Doong with the aim of finding the connection between Son Doong and Thoong (Thung) a gap of approximately 600m. The diving team found an underwater passage reaching a depth of 78m, though the overall depth of the passage was measured as 93m. With normal air cylinders, they could not dive any deeper or explore any further.
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