Explorers have discovered the deepest known cave in Australia – and have named it after a type of Covid virus.
The cave, called Delta Variant, is 1,315 feet (401 meters) high in the Johnny Florentine Karst region of Tasmania, the island of South Australia.
Delta Variant is slightly deeper than the previous record holder in Australia, Nigley Cave, which is 1,302 feet (397 meters) deep and is located in the same cave system.
However, neither of them compares to the deepest known cave in the world – Veryovkina Cave in Abkhazia, Georgia, which reaches 7,257 feet (2,212 meters) in height.
An elite team of nine cavemen from southern Tasmania set a new record for the deepest cave in Australia at the Niggly and Growling Swallet Caves System in Tasmania
Delta Variant is slightly deeper than the previous record holder in Australia, Nigley Cave, which is 1,302 feet (397 meters) deep and is located in the same cave system
The so-called Delta Variant is associated with the Niggly and Growling Swallet cave system in Tasmania, northwest of Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.
Its height is 1,315 feet, which is the equivalent of three Sydney Harbor bridges or four of London’s Elizabeth Towers on top of each other.
An elite team of cavemen from southern Tasmania discovered the cave after 14 hours underground and after six months of preparation.
The team entered the cave around 11 a.m. local time last Saturday (July 30) and exited at about 1.30 a.m. on Sunday.
“I was definitely nervous, you feel so aware of your death,” said team member Ciara Smart.
“Though you know you’re safe, it’s pretty scary and the sound too—it’s the constant roar of the waterfall. You can’t hear anything above your breath, it’s scary sometimes.
According to the explorers, the cave was named after the Covid variant ‘to remind future caves of contemporary events’.
Parts of the cave are named after various Covid-related terms, including ‘Test Station Queue’, ‘Super Spreader’ and ‘Daily Cases’, ABC reports.
The explorers encountered difficult conditions underground, in part due to the rising waters due to the recent snowfall of the Australian winter.
“The cave was very daunting,” Kaffir Ben Armstrong said.
‘Exhausting expedition’: Explorers celebrate when they reach the bottom of the Variant Delta, Australia’s deepest known cave
The explorers encountered difficult conditions underground, in part due to the rising waters due to the recent snowfall of the Australian winter.
“It was very vertical, requiring hundreds of meters to go up and down the ropes.”
The cave is located meters from the entrance to the Niggly and Growling Swallet Cave System.
It includes Niggly Cave, discovered in 1994, which was once the deepest known cave in the country.
The Delta Variant is just an “aperitif in the wider world of caves,” said Gabriel C. Rao, lecturer in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences at Newcastle University.
He wrote in The Conversation: “I am sure there are small spaces, very convenient for us to explore, and which open up to systems much taller or larger than we have ever discovered.”
Pictured is a cave explorer at Niggly Cave in Tasmania, the previous record holder for a cave in Australia.
