Discover 4 cave discoveries made in 2024 – from Slovenia to Vietnam, from Indonesia to the Moon.
Rewind to 1860. Queen Victoria is on the throne. Yorkshire is home to a thriving lead industry. Two local miners head out one freezing January morning in search of grey gold.
One of them thinks he sees a seam. Could this be the motherlode?
They start to dig. But when their spades penetrate the ground, they don't find what they're looking for. Instead, they find an underground kingdom of stalagmites, stalactites and flowstone:
Stump Cross Caverns, the network of caves you can visit to this day.
The world today is full of show caves. But for millennia, their treasures were hidden beneath the Earth's surface. Some were discovered by accident, some by design. As well as revealing geological wonders, they unlocked secrets of our prehistoric past.
You might think those days of discovery are over. At a time when you can visit show caves on Google Earth, surely there's nothing much left to discover?
But the world's caves keep on giving. In 2024 alone, scientists discovered the world's oldest known cave art, new caves in Vietnam, a new stretch of an underground river and even a cave on the Moon.
Want to take a closer look? Wrap up warm and grab a headlamp – we're going underground…
The world's oldest cave art
Ask someone in the UK what they know about Sulawesi and chances are they'll shrug. Yet it's not only the 11th largest island in the world with a population of 20 million. It's also home to the world's oldest known cave art.
In July 2024, scientists discovered a cave painting they estimate to be 51,200 years old. This replaces a 41,500-year-old picture from the same island as the oldest of its kind.
As you'd expect from such an ancient painting, it's not in great nick. But even leaving aside its age, it's a remarkable slice of prehistoric life.
The picture, measuring 92 by 38 centimetres, is painted in a deep, dark red pigment. It shows three people gathered around a large pig.
Your first question might be, "What are they doing?" And the straight answer is that we don't know. However, the fact that the picture implies a story is significant in itself.
It is, says Maxime Aubert of Griffith University, "the oldest evidence of storytelling". Before its discovery, the oldest narrative art was thought to have originated in Europe – but this is much older than its European counterparts.
This fascinating glimpse into Stone Age life was dated using a laser. Scientists calculated the age of the calcium carbonate that had formed on top of the painting. This means the painting itself could be even older. Crikey!
First lunar cave
Mare Tranquillatitis, also known as the Sea of Tranquility, is the vast plain on the Moon where the Apollo 11 mission landed back in 1969. Half a century later, it's known to be the site of the first confirmed lunar cave.
The theory that lunar caves connect pits on the Moon's surface is nothing new. But in 2024, an international team of scientists confirmed that the deepest known pit on the Moon's surface leads directly to a cave.
The cave is around 45 metres wide and somewhere between 30 and 80 metres long. It's the result of volcanic processes and could form part of a longer "tube cavity". The discovery suggests there are many more lunar caves to be found.
It also has ramifications for the future of space travel. Both astronauts and robotic explorers struggle with the Moon's environment, where temperatures can swing between 121ºC (250ºF) in the daytime and -133ºC (-207ºF) at night. Could this cave provide shelter to future explorers?
Tyler Horvath, a doctoral student at the University of California, believes so:
"Lunar caves could provide massive benefits for astronauts and rovers as they can seek shelter from the hazards on the lunar surface such as radiation, micrometeorites and temperature extremes, which could also open the door for long-term, large-scale human presence on the Moon."
New caves discovered in Vietnam
In 2024, the British-Vietnam Caving Expedition Team set out on its annual journey into the wilderness of Quang Binh.
This year, the team uncovered seven new caves in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park and its surroundings with a combined length of 1,377 metres. They found another 10 in Lam Hoa, Tuyen Hoa.
The first expedition lasted nine days, taking in rugged landscapes and river journeys.
It's no surprise that Quang Binh is known as a "Cave Kingdom".
An underground river in Trieste
In Trieste, the capital of Slovenia, there runs a mysterious underground river called the Timavo. The ancient Roman poet Virgil wrote that it was the confluence of nine streams. Today, we know it has four mouths – but the subterranean course of the river is still being mapped.
For the last 23 years, cave scientists have been exploring and excavating the cave of Luftloch to find out more about the Timavo. And in 2024, they hit the bottom, some 300 metres down.
Members of the Adriatic Society of Speleology discovered a new stretch of the Timavo. It was no easy task – the team was soaking wet for most of the expedition, and they had a hard time securing the ropes for the final descent.
But no amount of mud could put them off. At the bottom, they took measurements and collected samples of water and sediment.
Down at the bottom of Luftloch, the waters are unpolluted and olms – a kind of cave-dwelling aquatic salamander – were lying around motionlessly.
It's another important chapter in the story of the Timavo – and it's all thanks to the perseverance of the scientists who made it possible.
So there you have it: four amazing cave discoveries in one calendar year! What's next? We'll be sure to keep you posted.
In the meantime, are you looking for
caves to explore here in the UK? Buried deep underneath the Yorkshire Dales, Stump Cross Caverns is a treasure box of stalagmites, stalactites and unsolved mysteries. Fancy an adventure? It's easy to
book tickets online.
