Stuff To Blow Your Mind Kartchner Caverns, Part 1
Mar 10, 2026
A deep dive into Kartchner Caverns' discovery and the tight, risky art of cave exploration. They cover human impacts on cave ecosystems and how a single piece of litter can cause big problems. The story of secrecy, engineering a visitor entrance, airlocks and decontamination measures gets detailed attention. Seasonal bat roosts and choices made to protect the cave are highlighted.
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Discovery Of An Untouched Living Cave
- Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick describe discovering Karchner Caverns as an untouched, humid living cave found in the 1970s by Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen.
- Tufts and Tenen squeezed through a grapefruit-sized blowhole after chiseling it open and found extensive rooms with guano from bats that had been the only inhabitants.
Small Human Traces Devastate Cave Ecosystems
- Caves can be damaged by seemingly minor human actions like touching formations or leaving trash, which introduce microbes and disrupt humidity.
- A single Cheetos bag or skin-lint can spur fungi, new food webs, and require decontamination, per the Carlsbad example discussed.
Bat Guano Forms The Cave Food Web
- Cave ecosystems often rely on bat guano as the primary nutrient base, supporting fungi, insects, and entire food webs.
- Removing guano for fertilizer or souvenirs can collapse those dependent food chains.
