underground ecosystem surviving with different air.

[nix-j-c]

a coupe of years ago there was an expedition of scuba divers researching a cave (i think it was in New Zealand).

they dived into a hole and went underground and found a dry cave. But the equipment they took with them said that the air inside would kill humans if they breathed it. But life different to any found anywhere else on earth was found.

Does anyone know exactly where this was, and what element(s) were in the air, and how advanced the organisms were?

ps. It might not have been New Zealand but it was somewhere hot ( the entrance to the cave was in a forest orjungle)

[kempie]

The situation (if not the location) you describe is somewhat reminiscent of Movile Cave in Romania...

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/12/science/evol ving-in-the-dark-over-5.5-million-years.html

http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5771 /index.htm

[nix-j-c]

Thanks for researching.

i alos googled this but couldn't find it.

i posted the question at break time at school. I then realised i had geography next so i asked my geography teacher who said e knew what i was talking about and that it is a cave next to a volcanoe that has sulphur fumes coming from it, filling the cave with sulphur.

But he could only vaguly remember the name of the cave.

So i told the vague name to the teacher who i originaly told about the cave. He then searched on google and couldn't find it and told me i was a bafoon (he does that a lot (in a jokey way) ). i then went back to my geography teacher and told him that my science teacehr had searched and couldn't find it. So my geography teacher asked who the science teacher was and he went to hunt for him (by this time it was 3.30 so i went home.

[BillyBB]

Try
Cueva de Villa Luz,
Carlsbad
Lechuguilla