New area discovered at Carlsbad Caverns

It's been more than two decades since a discovery this big has been made at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico. Park officials announced this week that a new room has been discovered high in the ceiling of the main cavern. It was found on Halloween night by Derek Bristol, a caver and volunteer with the Cave Research Foundation, and Shawn Thomas, a cave technician at the park. The two had climbed more than 250 feet to the "Spirit World" area to finish surveying as part of work to create a new map of the caverns. Once inside, they decided to make their way to a ledge about 15 feet away. The ledge had been observed on previous trips but never explored. "Most of the time, obscure leads like this go nowhere," Thomas said. To their surprise, it opened up to a long passage. "I remember being really shocked. I couldn't believe this was happening," said Thomas, who followed Bristol through the passage and into the large room they dubbed Halloween Hall. "There hasn't been a room this big discovered in decades." Inside the colorful room were football-size crystal formations, light-blue endellite clay, a cascade of flow stone left behind by mineral deposits and thousands of bat bones. The room is about 100 feet in diameter. Bristol and Thomas did not have time to venture beyond the entrance of the room so more exploration and mapping is planned for early next year...more