Deer Cave

Deer Cave (Malay: Gua Rusa), located near Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia, is a show cave attraction of Gunung Mulu National Park. It was surveyed in 1961 by G.E. Wilford of the Malaysian Geological Survey, who predicted that Mulu would yield many more caves in the future. The cave, which is also known as Gua Payau or Gua Rusa by the local Penan and Berawan people, is said to have received its name because of the deer that go there to lick salt-bearing rocks and shelter themselves.

Description and survey history

The cave was surveyed for the first time in 1978, producing measurements of 174 m (571 ft) wide and 122 m (400 ft) high in one section that passed through the mountain for a distance of 1 km (0.62 mi). The next survey increased the acknowledged passage length to 4.1 km (2.5 mi) and connected Lang Cave, another show cave within the park, to the Deer Cave System. This survey, made in 2009 by the Hoffman Institute at Western Kentucky University, revealed the maximum cross-sectional area to be in the large southern passage. This was documented at 169 m wide with a ceiling height of 125 m (410 ft). The northern passage registered the greatest ceiling height at 148 m (486 ft) with a cross-sectional width of 142 m (466 ft). The main entrance of Deer Cave was measured at 146 m (479 ft).

Deer

Deer (singular and plural) are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the family include the white-tailed deer, mule deer (such as the black-tailed deer), elk, moose, red deer, reindeer (caribou), fallow deer, roe deer, pudú and chital. Male deer of all species (except the Chinese water deer) and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year. In this they differ from permanently horned animals, such as antelope, which are in the same order as deer and may bear a superficial resemblance to them.

The musk deer of Asia and water chevrotain (or mouse deer) of tropical African and Asian forests are not usually regarded as true deer and form their own families: Moschidae and Tragulidae, respectively.

Terminology

The word deer was originally broader in meaning, but became more specific over time. In Middle English, der (Old English dēor) meant a wild animal of any kind. This was in contrast to cattle, which then meant any sort of domestic livestock that was easy to collect and remove from the land, from the idea of personal-property ownership (rather than real estate property) and related to modern chattel (property) and capital. Cognates of Old English dēor in other dead Germanic languages have the general sense of animal, such as Old High German tior, Old Norse djur or dȳr, Gothic dius, Old Saxon dier, and Old Frisian diar.

Cave

A cave or cavern is a hollow place in the ground, especially a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. Caves form naturally by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word cave can also refer to much smaller openings such as sea caves, rock shelters, and grottos.

Speleology is the science of exploration and study of all aspects of caves and the cave environment. Visiting or exploring caves for recreation may be called caving, potholing, or spelunking.

Types and formation

The formation and development of caves is known as speleogenesis. Caves are formed by various geologic processes and can be variable sizes. These may involve a combination of chemical processes, erosion from water, tectonic forces, microorganisms, pressure, and atmospheric influences.

It is estimated that the maximum depth of a cave cannot be more than 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) due to the pressure of overlying rocks. For karst caves the maximum depth is determined on the basis of the lower limit of karst forming processes, coinciding with the base of the soluble carbonate rocks.

Red Deer Cave people

The Red Deer Cave People were the most recent known prehistoric population that do not resemble modern humans. Fossils between 14,500 and 11,500 years old were found in Red Deer Cave and Longlin Cave in China. Having a mix of archaic and modern features, they are (tentatively) thought to be a separate species of humans that persisted until recent times and became extinct without contributing to the gene pool of modern humans. Evidence shows large deer were cooked in the Red Deer Cave, giving the people their name.

Discovery

In 1979, the partial skull of a cave dweller was found in Longlin Cave in the Guangxi region of China. Additional human remains were excavated from Maludong (Red Deer Cave) in Yunnan Province. Fossils of the Red Deer Cave dwellers were radiocarbon dated between 14,500 and 11,500 years of age, using charcoal found in the fossil deposits. It is thought that during this period all other prehistoric human species, including Neanderthals, had died out. The Red Deer Cave humans could therefore be more recent than Homo floresiensis (dubbed "Hobbits") dated to 13,000 years ago.

Hang Sơn Đoòng

Hang Sơn Đoòng ('cave of the mountain river' or 'mountain cave of Đoòng [village]' in Vietnamese), also known as Sơn Đoòng cave (often without the tone marks) is a solutional cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Bố Trạch District, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. As of 2009 it has the largest known cave passage cross-section in the world, and is located near the Laos–Vietnam border. Inside is a large, fast-flowing subterranean river. It was formed in Carboniferous/Permian limestone.

Discovery

Hang Sơn Đoòng was found by a local man named Hồ Khanh in 1991. The whistling sound of wind and roar of a rushing stream in the cave heard through the entrance as well as the steep descent prevented the local people from entering the cave. Only in 2009 did the cave become internationally known after a group of scientists from the British Cave Research Association, conducted a survey in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng from 10 to 14 April 2009. Their progress was stopped by a large, 60-metre (200 ft) high calcite wall, which was named the Great Wall of Vietnam. It was traversed in 2010 when the group reached the end of the cave passage.