During the cave survey expedition in March, the British-Vietnamese cave exploration team, in coordination with the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board, recorded an additional 22 new caves and conducted additional surveys of 3 caves, totaling 3,550 meters in length.
On April 14th, the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board (PN-KB NPMB) announced that through cave surveys and explorations in the PN-KB NPMB area, as well as Minh Hoa and Tuyen Hoa districts, the British-Vietnamese cave exploration team had discovered 22 new caves.
One of the newly discovered caves. Photo: Provided by the cave expedition team.
The surveyed caves ranged in length from 30 to 572 meters, with the longest four being: Va Cave (516m), 12/2 Dry Cave (404m) within PN-KB NPMB, Vuc Hung Cave (430m) in Thuong Trach commune within the buffer zone of PN-KB NPMB, and Ong Dau Cave (572m) in Lam Hoa commune (Tuyen Hoa district). Entrance heights of the caves varied from 46 to 550 meters, with depths ranging from 32 to 154 meters.
In this survey, the core area of PN-KB NPMB had 7 surveyed caves totaling 1,415 meters in length, the buffer zone of PN-KB NPMB had 7 surveyed caves totaling 1,027 meters in length, and the adjacent area in Lam Hoa commune (Tuyen Hoa district) had 11 surveyed caves totaling 1,108 meters in length.
There are 22 new caves discovered in this round. Photo: Provided by the cave expedition team
According to Mr. Pham Hong Thai, Director of the PN-KB NPMB, these newly discovered caves are currently within the scope of preliminary research for location identification and preliminary description. Therefore, further in-depth surveys and studies are needed to better understand their value, enabling accurate assessments for conservation and sustainable exploitation of these landscapes and caves.
It is noted that identifying an additional 22 caves in the PN-KB NPMB area and adjacent regions is of significant importance to further clarify outstanding values related to geological and geomorphological features, hydrology within the PN-KB NPMB area, and is also a valuable resource for tourism development in Phong Nha-Ke Bang specifically, and Quang Binh province in general.
@Vietnamnet
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Source: Vietnam Insider