Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms (Imax) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Ronal C. Kerbo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you were to travel to the Amazon, say, or the source of the Nile, you would likely find the people there wearing corporate logo-branded T-shirts and listening to the latest pop hits on the radio. Using a GPS device or satellite photos, you can track your location just about anywhere on the face of the planet. Given globalism and the ease of travel to once-remote places, where is a would-be flag-planting adventurer to go these days?

The answer, writes Michael Ray Taylor in this intriguing book, is inward: inside the earth by way of the millions of caves that pierce its surface. Following an international team of fellow cavers--men and women in peak physical form and apparently without fear--his narrative takes us deep within the ice caves of Greenland; a vast underground labyrinth of rivers and chambers in Mexico's Yucatan; a cave on a cliff wall overlooking the Colorado River near the Grand Canyon, one that no human had ever before entered; and other great caverns of North America. High-quality (and sometimes astounding) full-color images accompany the text, offering views that usher us into a world of blind snakes, bats, strange geological formations, and uncanny sights that few surface-dwellers have been privileged to see.

Caving is not merely adventure for its own sake, Taylor notes. "Over the past decade," he observes, "scientists have been surprised to learn that in the deepest recesses of the Earth are repositories of exotic microbes ... far more varied in types of species and their individual strategies for survival than all the plants of an equatorial rain forest." Some of these microbes, he suggests, may deliver chemicals for fighting disease; they also deliver important evidence about the history of life on the planet.

But, all that said, caving offers plenty of thrills, and Taylor's book does a superb job of capturing both the science and the adventure of a journey to the center of the earth. --Gregory McNamee

From Booklist

This visually rich work was produced in conjunction with a National Geographic IMAX project filming spelunkers exploring caves throughout the world. The film follows two female cavers in subterranean sites in Greenland, the Yucatan, and the south-central U.S. The photographs and the story of the explorations would be sufficient to recommend this work, but it also includes fascinating background material on the history of the caves, their biological diversity, the tools used by spelunkers in their explorations, and the geologic forces that have made caves into natural works of art. The sites for this work were obviously, and successfully, chosen because of their visual impact and variety: a giant glacial ice cavern, vast networks of underground rivers, and cramped passageways of dripping delicate crystals. Perhaps the most astounding feature that the book highlights is not the geology but the amazing range of life-forms that prosper in impossibly harsh conditions. Eric Robbins
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792279042
• ISBN-13: 978-0792279044
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #215,693 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you dream of caves, this book is for you., March 9, 2001

By	Cynthia Powers (The Colony, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this book sight unseen and for one reason - it was written by Michael Ray Taylor (I'd read bathroom cleaner cans if he wrote the text for them). When I opened the box, I was stunned to find a coffee-table type book filled with incredibly beautiful photographs and great text. _Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms_ is a (stand alone, IMO) companion to the IMAX film of the same name; Kerbo's pictures are mind-blowing and the text is classic Taylor - accessible, entertaining, educational and just downright fun.

As an added treat, the microbiology angle of _Dark Life_ finds its way into _Caves: Exploring Hidden Realms_ as well. A bit of the text was taken from _Cave Passages_ but a very small bit and this didn't diminish my enjoyment. I can't say enough positive things about this book. Buy it!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great guide to caving, December 12, 2002

By	nickunt (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews

This book is very well written with lovingly detailed chapters devoted to the many splendid cave networks dotted around the world. There's a great section on the flora and fauna of the underworld, as well. I went potholing in Kak Canyon once, and saw a couple of chutney ferrets, all thanks to this book. Incredible creatures - and I wouldn't have known they were there until I read this.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How would you like to explore the mysteries of caves?, April 25, 2004

By	Norman Goldman "Editor of Bookpleasures.com" (Montreal) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Many of us have probably been very fascinated with caves since we were small children. However, we probably never had the actual experience of exploring caves nor will we ever undertake such a voyage to many of our planet's uncharted regions.

Perhaps, the wisest and safest way to satisfy our curiosity pertaining to the study of caves, or as it is called, Speleology, is to seek out a good reference text. National Geographic Society's coffee-table book entitled CAVES: EXPLORING HIDDEN REALMS, authored by Michael Ray Taylor, would certainly meet the criteria as being one of the most outstanding introductions to the mysteries of the underground.

The tome is the companion text to the McGillivray Freeman Imax film by the same title.
Taylor separates the book into three distinct sections, ice, water and earth in order that we have a general understanding as to where caves are to be located as well as their respective formations. As the author states: "the skin of the world hides many caves. All are profoundly shaped by, and profoundly affect, the nature of the land overhead. Caves are to a surface landscape as veins and capillaries are to a human face-the hidden structure of an inseparable whole."

The ice section introduces us to the caves of the heartland of Greenland where glossy photos provide us with fantastic visual entertainment that convey to us the beauty of these caves as well as the danger constantly prevalent within. Moreover, we are also clued in to the many animal creatures found within these subterranean enclaves such as the tardigrade. It is to be noted that the study of life in caves is known as biospeleology.

Our adventure moves onto to some of the caves discovered beneath the Yucatan or the section dealing with water. One only has to stare at the introductory photos to this chapter and we can appreciate the utterances of the cavers when they assert: "we are amid the wildest scenery we had yet found in Yucatan; and, besides the deep and exciting interest of the ruins themselves, we had around us what we wanted at all other places, the magnificence of nature."

The final stop on our journey delivers us to the caves of the earth where we explore the deepest one in the United States, Lechuguilla located in New Mexico. We also venture into the caves of Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia or as they are termed the TAG region. The spectacular photo of the Lechuguilla certainly reaffirms the statement that "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Enhancing the usefulness of the book are the many articles pertaining to the study of caves that have been contributed by several well-known experts. These short essays also include those of the author, Michael Ray Taylor, who has explored more than 600 caves in expeditions that have taken him around the world.

Bon voyage on your next expedition into the world of caves where all you will need is a good chair and Michael Ray Taylor's brilliant book.

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com