Latest news with #spelunkers
CNN
18-06-2025
- CNN
China works to clear a decade of garbage from caves near ‘Avatar' mountains
May and early June have always been popular times to visit the Zhangjiajie Forest Park in southwestern China's Hunan province, before the oppressive summer heat sweeps in. The stunning area is famed for its massive quartz-sandstone pillar formations, which are said to have inspired the floating scenery that appears in the 2009 Hollywood blockbuster 'Avatar.' But this year, as crowds of tourists pour into the area, just a few dozen miles away a government-ordered mass cleanup operation is taking place, with crews hauling bags of trash out of ancient caves — most reportedly dumped there more than a decade ago. The long-hidden environmental damage, discovered in Cili county, an area administered by the city of Zhangjiajie, first came to light in March, after several cave explorers posted footage of the trash-filled canyons on Chinese social media platform Douyin. In May, the clips went viral, sparking nationwide outrage and prompting investigations by state media and local authorities. The karst caves across Zhangjiajie are among the region's most striking natural wonders, formed over millions of years by water erosion. Inside, they often feature both visible and hidden streams, as well as dramatic limestone formations. One widely shared series of whistleblowing footage, posted by a spelunker named 'Xiaofugege,' showed plastic bottles, cans and even containers labeled as chemicals covering rocks and underground bodies of water inside multiple caves. The most shocking clip, posted on May 29, showed stacked trash 'as high as seven to eight floors' according to the spelunker. In one video, plastic waste can be seen covering an entire surface, prompting the person recording to say: 'Look at how thick the trash is, I can even walk on it.' Chinese leader Xi Jinping has repeatedly said environmental protection is a top priority for the country. Officials announced on June 9 that 51 tons of garbage had already been removed from two of the worst-hit caves. Many of the bags were filled with domestic waste, dumped between 2010 and 2015 after the local government banned trash burning but did not implement any waste removal alternatives. During that period, dumping garbage into caves was not only common but, in some cases, organized. Local officials and residents told state media that the village would send trucks to collect trash and dump it into the karst caves, a regular waste disposal practice back then. One resident said his dad, who lived only 200 meters from a cave, always discarded garbage into it by himself 'for convenience,' state media reported. 'Disposable items, worn-out clothes, plastic bags… all kinds of trash are here,' said one safety officer overseeing the cleanup, according to CCTV. Aside from household garbage, authorities say they are also dealing with animal waste. In one video shared in April, taken deep inside a large karst cave, manure could be seen pouring through holes in the ceiling, forming sludge pools while staining the white stalactites black. Cili county is a major pork producer in Hunan, raising 700,000 pigs annually, according to state media. Local authorities have reportedly launched investigations into 12 livestock farms for illegal waste discharge since footage of the local pollution appeared in March. Chinese social media reactions to news of the cleanup have been scathing. 'What's next? How long will it take for the caves and waters nearby to recover? Hundreds of years, or thousands of years?' wrote one Weibo user. 'The individuals and entities involved should be held accountable and face serious consequences,' said another. Officials told state media that of the 206 karst caves inspected in the area, two-thirds were polluted to some degree. Meanwhile, clean-up was reportedly paused from June 9 to June 12 due to the discovery of toxic air inside the caves. According to experts, it might be too late to reverse the damage. 'Once the pollutants seep into the karst aquifers, they can quickly contaminate downstream surface water, leading to deteriorating water quality and harming aquatic ecosystems,' Shuai Huan, deputy director of a local environmental geology survey center, told CCTV. This isn't an isolated incident. Last year, prosecutors in the city of Bijie, in Guizhou province, confirmed that more than 10 local karst caves were contaminated with household waste, sewage discharge and livestock farm waste following reports from environmentalists. While bags of trash are being pulled up by cranes in Cili county, the crowds continue to swell nearby in the Zhangjiajie Forest Park. During a holiday break from May 31 to June 2, the popular site saw nearly 400,000 tourists, almost 10% more than the same period last year, according to state media. The Zhangjiajie Forest Park is part of the larger Wulingyuan Scenic Area, a UNESCO World Heritage site covering more than 100 square miles in Hunan province. In January 2010, Zhangjiajie officially renamed one of its signature pillars 'Avatar Hallelujah Mountain' to celebrate its cinematic fame, after word got out that James Cameron took inspiration from the area's pillars to create some of the dramatic scenery in his sci-fi film. 'Zhangjiajie not only belongs to the world, but has already made its way to the world,' said a park official at the renaming ceremony. Today, the park is home to many popular attractions, including the 1,070-foot-tall glass Bailong Elevator. Built in 2002, it's said to be the world's tallest outdoor elevator. It travels up and down the side of a cliff in the national park and consists of three double-decker lifts, each of which can transport as many as 46 visitors up the mountain in less than two minutes per trip. The area is also home to the Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Glass Bridge, where visitors can experience one of the world's tallest bungee jumps. Among the most recent additions to Zhangjiajie is Tianti, which means 'Sky Ladder' in Chinese. At 551 feet long (168 meters), the suspended ladder stretches between two cliffs at a height of 5,000 feet, according to state media.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Science news this week: Strange signals from space and Earth's leaking gold
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. From the world's oldest known human fingerprint to genetic discoveries made using 2.2 million-year-old tooth enamel, this week's science news has taught us a lot about our ancient ancestors. But we've also learned a lot about our own species. While exploring what appeared to be "trash" in a cave in Mexico, two spelunkers came across dozens of artifacts that may have been used in fertility rituals by a little-known culture that inhabited the region 500 years ago. Looking even further back in history, scientists uncovered clues about the rise and fall of the Maya civilization in ancient DNA from people buried up to 1,600 years ago in Honduras. And let's not forget the newly discovered "ghost" lineage from ancient China, whose identity was deciphered from a 7,100-year-old skeleton in the southwestern Yunnan province. Looking beyond our own species, and our planet, researchers have been left stumped by some mysterious signals from outer space. Astronomers have identified a mysterious space object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, that spits out pulses of radio waves and X-rays in two-minute bursts at regular intervals. However, unlike traditional pulsars, which spit out radio signals every few seconds or milliseconds, the newfound object emits its pulses at intervals of 44 minutes — a period that was previously thought to be impossible. These signals have left scientists scratching their heads, and unraveling this cosmic mystery could reveal previously unknown physics. Discover more space news —'Previously unimaginable': James Webb telescope breaks its own record again, discovering farthest known galaxy in the universe —NASA plans to build a giant radio telescope on the 'dark side' of the moon. Here's why. —Not 'Little Red Dots' or roaring quasars: James Webb telescope uncovers new kind of 'hidden' black hole never seen before In the wild, parrots don't speak in human tongues; they communicate through a complex array of squeaks, squawks and whistles to find food and warn each other of potential dangers. Research has shown that these animals also use "signature contact calls" to refer to one another, similar to how we call each other by name. But in captivity, parrots don't have other flockmates to learn to speak "parrot" from. Instead, they use their highly specialized brains to pick up on human speech. But do they really understand what they are saying? Or are they merely masters of mimicry? At the center of our planet lies a vast reservoir of gold and precious metals, hidden beneath thousands of miles of rock. But new research suggests that, while it's unlikely we will ever be able to mine Earth's core, some of these metals might nonetheless make their way up to the surface. While studying volcanic rocks in Hawaii, scientists identified signs of a precious metal called ruthenium that they say could only have come from Earth's core-mantle boundary, located more than 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) below the planet's surface. The team believes that their findings indicate that gold and other precious metals may also be "leaking" from Earth's core into the mantle above. Discover more planet Earth news —There's a humongous boulder on a cliff in Tonga. Now we know how it got there. —Africa is being torn apart by a 'superplume' of hot rock from deep within Earth, study suggests —The land under South Africa is rising every year. We finally know why. —2 billion people could face chaotic and 'irreversible' shift in rainfall patterns if warming continues —Combo of cancer therapy drugs increases mice lifespan by 30% — but anti-aging benefits in humans remain unknown —Physicists capture 'second sound' for the first time — after nearly 100 years of searching —Giant 'senior citizen' sunspot on 3rd trip around the sun could break a century-old record "Megaconstellations" of private satellites are quickly becoming a reality, and that's a big problem for astronomers. Satellites release low levels of radiation in the form of radio waves. As the satellites crowd the outer reaches of our atmosphere, the invisible pollution they let off may disrupt signals from ground-based astronomy instruments, thus limiting our ability to read radio signals from the cosmos. "It would basically mean that no radio astronomy from the ground would be possible anymore," Benjamin Winkel, a radio astronomer at the Max Planck Institute of Radio Astronomy in Germany, told Live Science. "It will eventually reach a point where it is not worthwhile to operate a [radio] telescope anymore." At the rate that these megaconstellations are growing, this inflection point could be reached in the next 30 years. But what can be done to stop it? If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best long reads, book excerpts and interviews published this week. —NASA plans to build a giant radio telescope on the 'dark side' of the moon. Here's why. (Explainer) —'The Martian' predicts human colonies on Mars by 2035. How close are we? (Opinion) —Sleep: Facts about how and why we sleep (Fact file) Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, one of the most active in the world, has been erupting since December 2024. However, this week it did something very unusual. On May 25, the volcano spewed several enormous lava fountains, some shooting more than 1,000 feet (300 meters) into the air. Such "episodic" fountaining has not been seen since the eruption of Pu'u'ō'ō in the 1980s, experts from the U.S. Geological Society (USGS) wrote. As it erupts, the volcano has also released thousands of tons of toxic sulfur dioxide and strands of windblown volcanic glass, posing a significant threat to human health. Want more science news? Follow our Live Science WhatsApp Channel for the latest discoveries as they happen. It's the best way to get our expert reporting on the go, but if you don't use WhatsApp, we're also on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Flipboard, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and LinkedIn.
