The classical standard is that for a cavity to qualify as a cave, as opposed to merely a rock shelter or a pit, a caver must be able to reach some location inside the cavity where no sunlight is visible, even when the sun is shining brightly outside the cavity.
When searching for the shortest cave by this definition, it may be useful to have at least one large diameter caver on the survey team, since this may help to qualify certain cavities that are less than one body length long. The caver enters the cavity head first. Once he squeezes in far enough for his body to plug the entrance, sunlight will no longer be visible from his location, and, hence, the cavity will qualify as a cave, even if it is too short to accept the caver's entire body. Therefore, the next time you go cave hunting for tiny caves, invite an extra large caver, and you might make a discovery worthy of Gill's record book. ;-) Rod -----Original Message----- >From: wa5...@peoplepc.com >Sent: May 25, 2010 10:55 PM >To: texascavers@texascavers.com >Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Re: Shortest Caves > >How 'bout: >min - sun can't touch you from sunrise to sunset >max - gotta use un-natural light when natural light doesn' work >anymore. > >~F~ > >> How would you even define what a short cave was? Would it >> have a minimum length as well as a maximum. Without a minimum every >> overhang, tinaja, and gopher hole under a rock might qualify. >> Besides, who would care, other than Gill? ;-) >> >> Mark Minton >> >> At 07:38 AM 5/25/2010, Chris Vreeland wrote: >> >It may, in fact, be the longest list of caves. >> > >> >On May 24, 2010, at 10:37 PM, Logan McNatt wrote: >> > >> >>The list of shortest caves would be really long. >> >> >> >>Gill Edigar wrote: >> >>>Well, can't you send them the lists of Deep & Long caves of the >> >>>World? How come nobody keeps a list of the shortest caves? >> >>>--Ediger >> >>> >> >>>On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 9:51 PM, Logan McNatt >> >>><lmcn...@austin.rr.com> wrote: >> >>> >> >>>>Found an interesting website today that some of you might want to >> >>>>look at. It does not live up to the "all things quantifiable >> >>>>quantified" claim, e.g. under Natural World I didn't find Caves. >> >>>>It does haveBats, but only the largest and smallest. Some of the >> >>>>categories include foreign and historic measures which can come in >> >>>>handy when you find yourself caving in a far away place, or time. >> >>>> >> >>>>http://www.sizes.com/ >> >>> >> >>>Please reply to mmin...@caver.net >> >>>Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: >> texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, >> e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com >> > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- >Visit our website: http://texascavers.com >To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com >For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
