The Wells Gray Park Cave discovery of 2018 was of a karst cave in

Wells Gray Provincial Park Wells Gray Provincial Park is a large wilderness park located in east-central British Columbia, Canada. The park protects most of the southern, and highest, regions of the Cariboo Mountains and covers 5,250 square kilometres (524,990 hectares or ...

, in the

Cariboo Mountains The Cariboo Mountains are the northernmost subrange of the Columbia Mountains, which run down into the Spokane area of the United States and include the Selkirks, Monashees and Purcells. The Cariboo Mountains are entirely within the provinc ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. The cave has informally been named Sarlacc's Pit pending an official name.

Discovery and exploration

Aerial photographs taken from 1949 to 2018 indicate the shaft was covered by snow year-round, and may have only became noticeable in recent decades in the summer melt season due to glacial retreat. In the spring of 2018, a Canadian government team was surveying caribou populations by helicopter when the pilot, Ken Lancour, spotted a deep, snow-filled depression at the cave entrance. The team named the cave ''Sarlacc's Pit,'' in reference to the

Sarlacc The sarlacc (plural sarlacci) is a fictional creature in George Lucas's sci-fi action saga ''Star Wars''. It first appeared in the film ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983) as a multi-tentacled alien beast whose immense, gaping maw is lined with sever ...

creature from the film ''

Return of the Jedi ''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who w ...

''. The name, however, remains unofficial until a naming consultation can be held with

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: ** First Nat ...

in the area. In September 2018, a team led by geologist Catherine Hickson and archaeological surveyor John Pollack returned to the site and made a partial descent into the cave once it was snow-free, estimating it to be at least two kilometres (1.2 mi) long. The ground reconnaissance expedition estimated the physical dimensions of the cave. The team plans to return for more extensive explorations in 2020. The discoverers wished to keep the location secret to prevent environmental damage to the cave from visitors. In addition, the

Government of British Columbia The Government of British Columbia (french: Gouvernement de la Colombie-Britannique) is the body responsible for the administration of the Canadian province of British Columbia. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assumi ...

closed the area around the cave in the interests of preservation and public safety.

Geography and geology

Media reports have claimed that Sarlacc's Pit is the largest known stripe karst cave. A potentially deeper stripe karst cave is the Cascade Tupper System at , and a potentially longer one is the White Rabbit at . Preliminary estimates suggest that Sarlacc's Pit may also have the largest cave entrance in Canada. Its entrance is long by wide and is at least deep. A river flows into the entrance, becoming a waterfall and sending up mist that has prevented measuring the exact depth of the cave. In British Columbia (BC), comparable caves would include Devil's Bath–a 100 to 120 m (330 to 390 ft) diameter water-filled sink—and Vanishing River, both on northern Vancouver Island. The Northwest Territories (NWT) has several large karst features including the Vermillion Creek Collapse (120 m by 60 m wide by 40 m deep). The Disappearing River near the Hare Indian River Plateau, NWT is another. Neither the Vermillion Creek Collapse, nor the Disappearing River, have open cave passages. The cave is normally snow-covered for much of the year and sits at the bottom of a massive avalanche slope. Early fall may be the only practical season to explore the cave because this is when the waterfall that fills the entrance experiences its lowest flow; in spring,

meltwater Meltwater is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found in the ablation zone of glaciers, where the rate of snow cover is reducing. Meltwater ca ...

flow of between cubic metres per second () prevents entrance. The cave may have been snow-covered year-round until the 20th century. This would suggest that it has not been explored by First Nations people, and the technical gear required, combined with the depth of the entrance shaft, means passing mountaineers in the last few decades are also unlikely to have explored it.

Gallery

References

External links

* {{Coord, 52, 31, 00, N, 120, 02, 35, W, display=title Caves of British Columbia Wells Gray-Clearwater Karst caves 2018 in British Columbia

Discovery and exploration

Geography and geology

See also

Gallery

References

External links