Three divers from the United Kingdom who helped rescue a Thai football team have explored an underground river system in Vietnam, and their findings could lead to a cave in Vietnam known as the biggest in the world being even larger.
The three were in the Son Doong cave for a week, where they found a tunnel system that suggested the world’s biggest cave may even be bigger, VN Express reported. They were there in the hope of finding a link between the Son Doong cave and the Thung Cave.
Before they entered the river in the cave, they estimated the river’s depth to be 93 meters. When they reached 77 meters, they were unable to find any links with the Thung Cave, but realized the Son Doong was bigger that anyone thought.
According to the divers, the discovery made the cave even more mysterious to cave scientists and experts. The cave was estimated to be 500 meters deeper than the previous estimates.
Oxalis, the only firm licensed to take tourists to the Son Doong cave, organized the expedition with the Quang Binh Authorities. The three British divers were among those who helped rescue the 12 boys trapped in a flooded cave with their football coach in July 2019.
Their mission to explore the cave would continue next year. The cost of the expedition was estimated to be US$53,000.
The Son Doong Cave is in Quang Binh’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and was discovered in 2009 and opened to tourists in 2013 after the British Cave Research Association declared it to be the world’ s largest cave.
