Speleology


Speleology or Cave Exploration is the science of exploring underground spaces.

In this it is a sort of betwixt science, which means, it uses several other sciences for its own purposes. The most important sciences for speleology are geology, geography, surveying, biology, archaeology, palaeontology, and of course engineering for the equipment. A famous French caver, PeopleNorbert Casteret, once said: "speleology is sports in service of science". This shows, that practical speleology is a lot of sports, climbing, abseiling, and squeezing through narrow passages.

showcaves.com has a section for the equipment, for caving, for archaeology and so forth. Here is the section where some stuff about speleology itself, the scientific exploration of caves and karst, is told. This is knowledge and techniques, which are not part of related sciences, but of speleology itself. And this is above all speleogenesis.

Classification of Caves

Speleogenesis

Some Special Cave Types