Explorers just uncovered Australia’s deepest cave. A hydrogeologist explains how they form

By Gabriel C Rau, Lecturer in Hydrogeology, School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle

Cave explorers have traversed what’s now the deepest known cave in Australia. On Saturday a group of explorers discovered a 401-metre-deep cave, which they named Delta Variant, in Tasmania’s Niggly-Growling Swallet cave system within the Junee–Florentine karst area. Its depth just beat out its predecessor, the Niggly Cave, by about four metres.

With a descent that lasted 14 hours and took many months to prepare for, Delta Variant is causing a…

Read complete article

~	Pharmacare’s design could further fragment and politicize Canada’s health system

~	‘Baby Reindeer’ highlights sexual violence against men — but feels indifferent to viewer safety

~	Guatemala: International organizations condemn judicial persecution of former prosecutor Virginia Laparra

~	Somalia: Death of 23 civilians in military strikes with Turkish drones may amount to war crimes – new investigation

~	Palestinian writers have long explored the horrors of amputation

~	AI products for kids promising friendship and learning? 3 things to consider

~	How the nursing shortage is affecting the health-care system, patients and nurses themselves

~	This group rid one Australian river of its privet problem – and strengthened community along the way

~	Making merry: how we brought Melbourne’s Merri Creek back from pollution, neglect and weeds

~	Exploitation, brutality and misery: how the opium trade shaped the modern world