Cavers in Montréal have learn an unbelievable arrangement of cavern and tunnelsbeneath the urban center , created when sabre - toothed cat were still track down dry land sloths and mammoths were migrating across the steppes .
The Pie - XII Park in central Montréal is already well - known for a ulterior closed book , with an incoming mode for the St. Léonard cave that peoplecan go down and explore . But it was what lay hidden beyond this section that stun spelaeologist . Two cavers discovered anentirely new networkof shafts and tunnel that pass on almost 213 meters ( 700 feet ) deep into the rock-and-roll .
The two who made the remarkable find , Daniel Caron and Luc Le Blanc , in the end entered the new system this October , but their hunch for the new caves occurred way back in 2014 . After a year of search the already mapped part of St. Léonard ’s cavern , they came across a minute opening in the rock ‘n’ roll at the back of one of the cavities . Too belittled for a person to slue through , a camera revealed it to open out into a novel chamber beyond .
It was not until this year that they have been capable to rip off out enough stone to provide them to slip into the system and start exploring . From the enceinte hollow they run into , the cavers then drop down into a narrow hallway perhaps 6 meter ( 20 feet ) high . “ The walls are perfectly smooth and the ceiling is dead horizontal , ” Le Blanc toldNational Geographic .
The cave systems in this part of the world are thought to have been form when the great water ice sheet that once stretched across much of North America finally retreat around 12,000 geezerhood ago . As the glaciers withdraw over the country , cleft were constitute in the ground below , leading to the organization that is now seen hidden under Montréal .
One of the most unbelievable parts of this recent find is that even though St. Léonard cave was first found in 1812 , and utility program pipes and basements have been establish since then as the city continued to inflate , this modish system of rules still somehowremained undetecteduntil now . They remember this is probably because the caves are too deep underground for anyone to have noticed before .
The tunnel likely hold out flop down to the water table underneath the city . However , the squad have halt exploring it further due to the prominent amount of body of water filling the lower subdivision of the cave . They plan to return next twelvemonth to see if they can go any deeper .
