Sơn Đoòng Cave: Google Doodle celebrates Hang Son Doong, one of the world’s largest natural caves in Vietnam

Google Doodle celebrates Sơn Đoòng Cave (Hang Sơn Đoòng), one of the world’s largest natural caves in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Bố Trạch District, Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam on April 14, 2022.

Situated close to the Laos-Vietnam border, Hang Sơn Đoòng has an internal, fast-flowing subterranean river and the largest cross-section of any cave, around the world, starting in 2009, believed to be twice that of the next largest passage. It is the biggest known cave passage in the world by volume.

Its name, Hang Sơn Đoòng, is differently interpreted from Vietnamese as ‘cave of the mountain river’ or ‘cave of mountains behind Đoòng [village]’.

Son Doong Cave is in the heart of the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh territory. This amazing cave was just investigated in 2009/2010 by the British Cave Research Association. Situated in the deep jungle, the entry to the cavern was found by a local jungle man Mr. Ho Khanh.

Son Doong Cave is currently the largest cave in the world and has naturally been the consideration by many film organizations, for example, the BBC, National Geographic, Japanese and Brazilian teams. It was likewise highlighted in National Geographic Magazine in 2011. Son Doong cave is unlike some other caves in the world.

Master geologists estimate the Sơn Đoòng (Vietnamese for “Mountain River”) Cave was formed sometime between 2 to 5 million years ago—epochs before local farmer Ho Khanh accidentally found its huge entrance in 1990.

Hang Son Doong stayed immaculate until 2008 when Khanh backtracked his steps to its misty opening, and until 2009 closed by Howard and Deb Limbert of the British Cave Research Association. The intrepid speleologists directed the cavern’s first official survey and concluded that it was the largest cave on earth.

The entrance to Hang Sơn Đoòng was found in 1991 by a local man named Hồ Khanh while looking for agarwood, a significant timber. The whistling sound of wind and the thunder of a rushing stream issuing from the rushing heard through the entrance, as well as the steep descent, deterred Hồ Khanh from entering the cave.

Just in 2009 did Sơn Đoòng Cave become internationally known after a group of cavers from the British Cave Research Association directed a survey in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng from April 10 to 14, 2009. Their progress was come by a huge, 60-meter (200 ft) high flowstone-coated wall, which was named the Great Wall of Vietnam. It was crossed in 2010 when the group concluded the cave passage.

In 2010, a BCRA expedition team led by Howard Limbert finished a survey of Sơn Đoòng Cave and declared it the world’s largest natural cave on 14 April 2010, with a volume of 38.5 million m3.

Inside Sơn Đoòng’s undisturbed inner chambers (sufficiently large to fit a whole city block of 40-story buildings!), researchers found a wealth of record-breaking geological formations including the world’s largest limestone pearls and tallest stalagmite.

Giant sinkholes situated further into the cave’s depths consider sunlight and rain to nourish two pristine jungle ecosystems, which are home to flying foxes, the world’s just monkeys to live underground, and eyeless white fish. One of these flourishing rainforests is so tremendous, that it even has its localized weather system!

In 2019, a threesome of British divers demonstrated there was something else to find after observing an underwater tunnel interfacing Sơn Đoòng Cave to another cave—tacking on one more 5.6 million cubic feet to its as of now the titanic volume of 1.35 billion cubic feet.

On April 14, 2022, Google highlighted a Doodle on its homepage for celebrating Sơn Đoòng Cave. Settled deep within the remote jungles of central Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, lies a natural phenomenon unparalleled by some other on Earth: the immense Sơn Đoòng Cave. The present Google Doodle celebrates this huge cave, which was officially found on this day in 2009.