Article 5: Planet Earth: Caves

Written by George Fenton

Seen on 5/10/15

From the massive sulfuric Lechuguilla caverns to the underwater caves of tropical
Mexico this episode of Planet Earth revolves around life in caves. Exploring into some of these
caves are considered one of the most dangerous past-times, so imagine what it would take to live
down there in the light-less cavities of the Earths crust. For one such animal, the New Zealand
Glowworm, it survives by enticing insects to their doom. They spin strands of silk encased by
mucus that can sometimes grow up to 30-40 cm long, and a single worm could spin up to 70 of
those in a day, all interconnected by a master thread on the celling of the cave that the worm uses
to move around. The silken threads reflect the glowworms glow which emanates from its tail
and is actually an indefinite chemical reaction to lure insects into their threads and then proceed
to eat their victim alive as too keep the meat fresh so to speak. From New Zealand, the show
transitioned to Cueva de Villa Luz, a unique cave in Mexico. This is a cave in which the lime
stone is carved not by water but by hydrogen sulfide. This makes the water and air high sulfuric
and extremely toxic to organic life forms. That, however, doesnt mean that these caves are
unpopulated. This cave is host to a variety of Troglophiles comprising mostly of small fish, while
its unknown how these creatures survive in water overflowing with H2S is still quite amazing.
However this brings up a rather interesting question: If we do figure out how these cave dwellers
filter, digest, or otherwise dispose of the toxic substance, could we use it to explore those regions
still inaccessible to humans? A lot of the planets out in space which have an atmosphere
comprising of mostly sulfur based compounds. If we could unlock this secret it might be possible
to apply it to other harmful chemicals and who knows how far humanity could take it from
there? To infinity and beyond would be my guess.

This is an essential additive for my portfolio because not only does it show that life can
survive in the harshest of conditions, but it demonstrates that life can adapt in ways that humans
simply cannot comprehend.