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00:00Beneath the surface of our planet lies a vast realm.
00:06Look at this.
00:07Countless caves, hidden tunnels, and submerged rivers.
00:15Now, on a quest for knowledge, expert cavers are descending into the uncharted abyss.
00:22Descending!
00:24Where extraordinary discoveries lie waiting.
00:27Looks like a very kind of violent act.
00:30Armed with the latest scanning technology to penetrate the darkness.
00:35There it is.
00:37Look at all the detail. This is amazing.
00:40And turn data into accurate 3D images.
00:46This time, a mission into Britain's tallest vertical cave.
00:51To pull off a scan hundreds of feet in the air.
00:55I just looked at that and I couldn't see the top.
00:58To solve a mystery millions of years in the making.
01:04Can divers find the source of a river deep underground?
01:09Yours is the first light ever to illuminate this cavern.
01:14And will decoding these strange cave markings prove the existence of an ancient terror?
01:20People believe that was the lair of the devil.
01:2721st century britain dynamic iconic historic if you think you know great britain then think again
01:49deep beneath the surface of the british isles lies some of the world's most hostile caves
01:58dark complex often flooded spaces that push the limits of the world's toughest cavers
02:09caving in britain is not for the faint-hearted you have to really want to do it and one cave
02:17has gained a reputation above all others it lies in the peak district an area known for its limestone
02:27and complex cave systems the only clue to this cave's existence is a man-made entrance dug into
02:37the hillside that leads into the darkness below
02:40to reach this iconic british cave the underworld team must head high into the hills
02:54team leader is dave nixon also known as moose
03:03never had any shelter up here but um it's very exposed you're about 430 meters above sea level here
03:11so you get you get some pretty brutal weather
03:16moose was the first person to lay eyes on titan when he discovered it in 1999 by digging through from
03:27below
03:27but aside from caving lamps no one has ever seen the chamber in its entirety
03:34titan is a vast vertical cave it's said to have the longest single drop inside any cave in britain
03:47but its precise dimensions and volume have yet to be proved
03:53now moose wants to create a three-dimensional scan of the cave to reveal exactly what lies deep inside this hill
04:05well the beauty of a scan is that obviously you'll be able to see the whole thing in 3d in one go
04:11because when you're actually down there you when you're looking you just see bits of the cave at a time
04:16rather than all of it and you've got to piece it together in your head
04:20could the scan data confirm what moose believes that titan is the tallest cave in britain and can
04:30the data also reveal how such a colossal cave was formed but creating a precise digital model will
04:38require specialist equipment and an expert operator moose has called in one of the world's leading cave
04:47surveyors ru walters he's used pioneering laser technology to scan nearly 200 caves around the
04:56world including another giant of the subterranean world china's maoroom the largest known cavern on earth
05:04titan came into uh almost folklore in the caving world about 20 odd years ago the clues in the name
05:16it's big bigger vertically than anything i've surveyed before so i think that is going to pose us some
05:22interesting challenges but it should be an absolutely spectacular place
05:28hi boys how are you doing mate good to see you good to see you very clean
05:33i'm not going to stay that way for long am i welcome to titan shall we get sorted
05:43to size up the challenge facing them the scanning team want to get their first glimpse of titan
05:50are you ready move excellent looking forward to so one thing's certain inside titan the team will need
05:58to be secured by ropes at all times it's very straightforward so i'll go down first okay i'll
06:05give you a hollow from the bottom yeah i'll see you down there great all right for years titan was only
06:13accessible by navigating a labyrinth of caves below so moose got permission to create a faster route in
06:23he and his friends dug this access tunnel a crazy endeavor that took four years to complete
06:32the shortcut starts as a narrow 157 foot vertical descent
06:37then cuts across horizontally leading to a small opening into the top of titan
06:45all right ru is about to get his first look into one of britain's most spectacular caves
07:00at the end of the tunnel a small opening offers an overhead view of titan there we go oh wow
07:14cavers lights can only illuminate a small part of this vast chamber
07:19the rest lies far below in total darkness
07:27from the access tunnel there's a drop through titan's massive upper cavern
07:32to a narrow pinch point called the event horizon
07:36below that there's another steep drop all the way down to the bottom
07:41it's pretty cool moose it's pretty cool when i first looked over the shaft i really wasn't quite
07:49prepared for how big and how deep a hole it was you sort of know it on paper but nothing quite prepares
07:55you for how enormous it is okay how far do you reckon it is to the far side probably about between 80
08:03and 100 meters yeah she's a big old hole basically that's what you're going to be scanning
08:08so that's what you're doing titan's vertical chamber is unlike any other ru has scanned before
08:17scanning is a method of capturing objects and situations in three dimensions
08:24but it's only recently in the last five years or so that we've been able to apply this 3d technology
08:29to caves and what it's beginning to do is allow us to see parts of the cave we've never been able to
08:35see before in forensic detail scans work by sending out pulses of light and measuring the time they
08:42take to bounce back it does that between three and five hundred thousand times a second all around you
08:50so it builds up a picture of 3d dots which represent the object that you're trying to scan in three
08:56dimensions to record the reflections back from cave walls means placing the scanner in multiple
09:03positions around the cave so that laser beams can reach every nook and cranny but in a giant vertical
09:11shaft the size and depth of titan there aren't enough flat surfaces on which to put the scanner
09:18so the question is can it be done i think the best way to scan titan is to use a different form of
09:25scanner that you can use while you're moving so you scan as you move around rather than using static
09:30positions and then to take that scanner with you and abseil right down the center of the shaft
09:36scanning as you go but i'm going to have to have a word with the team to work out how we can how we
09:41can best affect that
09:46clues to how a massive cave like titan is formed lie in the limestone that surrounds it
09:53analysis of these rocks takes us back to the origins of the british isles
10:01most of the caves that we have actually harks back several hundred million years ago when the uk was in
10:08a different place around 350 million years ago during a period known as the carboniferous the continents
10:17were in a completely different position across the globe what would become modern britain lay beneath
10:24an ocean just south of the equator back then we had these tropical seas full of corals full of
10:33organisms marine creatures where calcium carbonate was the body parts that die and and form a kind of
10:40limey mud and that over time will get solidified into limestone gradually tectonic forces formed the
10:49continents uplifting these ancient seabeds in the process now vast belts of limestone cut right across britain
10:59making up many of its hills and peaks this porous stone is instrumental in the creation of caves like titan
11:10and so the rainfall we get here in britain kind of percolates through that bare rock that moves
11:16through cracks and fractures into the subsurface as water seeps into the ground it absorbs carbon dioxide
11:26creating carbonic acid which eats away at the limestone dissolving it slowly over millions of years
11:34creating complex cave systems and some still contain their subterranean rivers which entice a different kind of underground explorer
11:50cave divers
11:53extreme caving at its most demanding and dangerous
11:57150 miles southwest from titan near the mendip hills deep rivers carve their way through limestone rock
12:12this underworld is known as the birthplace of cave diving and has been crucial in forging a breed of world-class
12:20underwater explorers
12:28wookie hole is a cave system that snakes through the rock for nearly three miles
12:35a series of caverns connected by a warren of passages
12:40in between the dry chambers some passages are completely submerged
12:46flooded caves known as sumps where only cave divers can pass
12:54much of wookie hole can only be discovered by the most skilled and intrepid of divers
12:59like martin farr a cave diving legend
13:08he's a veteran of over 50 years of record-breaking underwater cave exploration all over the world
13:15cave diving is a totally different ball game to normal caving
13:20cave divers like martin are crucial to the discovery and mapping of britain's underground rivers
13:29yeah 240 left 220 right
13:35we're starting to explore these these hidden corners of our world cave divers expand our knowledge
13:43the chart the sources of springs streams and rivers uncovering the very start of our planet's plumbing
13:52system before water reaches the surface and pours into the ocean the science of the subsurface is now
14:01a fundamental part of the way that we think of how the planet works
14:04cave diving requires a cool head and nerves of steel
14:17today's cave divers use the latest technology from carbon dioxide scrubbers in their tanks to dive computers
14:24a far cry from some of the first ever successful cave dives that took place in wookie hole in 1935
14:37they used primitive bulky dive equipment heavy brass helmets and clumsy lead boots
14:44air was pumped from the surface through long hoses
14:48the conditions that these pioneer divers had to contend with were pretty pretty gruesome really
14:59despite the difficulties these pioneers broke new ground
15:06the 1935 dives began near the cave entrance in chamber three
15:10it took six weeks but they managed to make their way through 170 feet of submerged tunnels adding four new
15:20chambers to the map getting as far as their early equipment could take them
15:26over the next four decades as technology developed cave explorers pushed on another 1600 feet discovering even
15:36more chambers but there was more to come
15:45in 1976 martin farr expanded the map even further pushing beyond the 24th chamber into the unknown
15:56he dived through a new 295 foot stretch of tunnel
15:59and found himself in a new chamber
16:06when i broke surface you know you know yours is the first light ever to illuminate this cavern
16:13martin had reached the 25th chamber
16:18a place no human had ever been before
16:21it is an incredibly rewarding feeling
16:25you've pushed beyond the limits of any previous explorer and that is what real cave diving exploration is about
16:36more recently other cave divers have explored wookie to its limit
16:41where the underground river is blocked by boulders 300 feet down
16:46wookie hole is an underworld that has shaped the skills of britain's best cave divers
16:59skills that in 2018 saved lives
17:07good evening 12 children and their football coach who've been missing for 10 days have been found alive
17:13in flooded caves when 12 boys and their football coach became stranded underground in thailand the largest cave rescue in history was mounted
17:27an international team of cavers and divers came to their aid
17:33the rescuers who were tasked with diving and carrying each boy through a kilometer of sumps
17:39in zero visibility were four cave divers who'd all trained in britain's own wookie hole
17:49the rescue was a success
17:57but it did not come without sacrifice claiming the life of thai navy seal diver saman gunan
18:09cave exploration is a dangerous business
18:20in the peak district the underworld team are planning to scan titan
18:25but first they need to do a test run
18:31one and a half miles from titan
18:33is a natural chasm 200 feet deep open to daylight an ideal place for the team to practice
18:52okay guys this is the scanner
18:53us
18:54them is a test run
18:54okay yes
18:55yeah
18:56well i'm gonna take a thought
18:56titan is so vertical that rue has been forced to entirely rethink how he works
19:05scanning from titan's base would only record a fraction of its towering interior
19:11rue's solution is to send the scanner up the full height of titan
19:15ascending on a rope and scanning simultaneously something that has never
19:24been attempted before to achieve this Rue wants to experiment in Eldon hole
19:33with a new piece of kit an electric seat he hopes it will allow a smooth ascent
19:40up the middle of Titan while operating the scanner this is one of the highest caves
19:47in the peak district but it's also one of the best places to try out this seat
19:50obviously it's not as big as Titan but it'll give you the idea and certainly
19:54what we're trying to establish today is just the principle of working on the
19:58electric power so designed for use in industrial spaces the seat will only
20:10travel upward it's never been used in a cave environment before
20:21just start spinning in a second Rue is also testing a new compact laser scanner
20:28he's hired for the job he will need to operate it while controlling the
20:36motorized seat
20:39okay there's a scanner Joe
20:42and we've got the green light to go
20:50lovely okay
20:51yep
20:52is that tight enough for you there?
20:57just another inch would be lovely
20:59after securing the scanner Rue's ready to attempt the 197 foot ascent
21:06ascending!
21:08good
21:09how's the scanner doing Joe?
21:14well it's swinging around a bit now but it looks pretty good
21:20a slow steady ascent is essential for an accurate scan result
21:30but Titan is much taller so a swinging rope will be even harder to control
21:39together the seat and scanner weigh more than 55 pounds
21:54we've got a loop
21:56yep
21:57just so I don't drop it
21:59I might need a hand
22:01yeah
22:02it's bloody heavy
22:08well that worked a treat
22:10was the plan a good one or a bad one?
22:12it's an excellent one
22:13good story able to keep a nice even speed up the pitch with the with the seat
22:17and that's going to be perfect for the scan
22:20the team have come up with a potential method for scanning Titan
22:24but Titan is more than twice as deep as Elden Hole
22:29if they can pull it off Moose hopes the scan images will help others share in the awe that he felt
22:37when he first set foot inside the cave
22:46modern cavers like Moose are just the latest in a long line of underground explorers
22:52lured by the peaks of Derbyshire
22:56rich in lead ore
22:58prospectors have mined these hills since Roman times
23:03over the centuries miners were forced to dig ever deeper
23:07in order to reach dwindling deposits
23:11on occasion they would break through into natural cave systems
23:16and it was a record of a mining route
23:19that led Moose to the discovery of Titan over 200 years later
23:24so this document and all the clues that were in it were like a eureka moment for me
23:31and this account was written in 1793
23:34and it was by a chap called James Plumptree
23:37who visited the Peak District
23:38and when he visited the Peak District
23:40he visited Speedwell Mine
23:42dug in the 18th century
23:45Speedwell Mine is a series of abandoned tunnels
23:48these intersect with the natural caves of the Peak Speedwell cave system
23:53a network of passages over 11 miles long
23:57Plumtree's account described part of a mine system
24:01that could lead Moose into new undiscovered areas of the Speedwell system
24:06we just thought, yes, let's go
24:08get the shovel, let's get out there
24:10and let's get on with it
24:11because we're going to find something
24:13it was almost certain we were going to find something
24:15in 1992
24:18Moose and his friends embarked on an epic quest
24:22to find new parts of the cave system
24:24that's what attracts your caver
24:27somebody who's into cave exploration
24:29somebody who's got a curious mind
24:30somebody who won't take no for an answer
24:32is going to say, no
24:34I want to find out what's there
24:36they struck out into the unknown
24:39tunneling through collapsed mine shafts
24:42digging through boulder jokes
24:45in all, pushing their way through
24:47nearly two and a half thousand feet of passage
24:51finally, after seven years
24:54on New Year's Day 1999
24:57they hit a small dark chamber
25:02ooh
25:07jeepish creep
25:11Titan may be big
25:14but the approach to it
25:17isn't
25:19and above here
25:21there's a little antechamber
25:23to Titan
25:25it was here they realised
25:27they were on the brink
25:29of something big
25:31limestone's deposited in beds
25:33you can see this one's a very dark limestone
25:36but what you've got here
25:38is you've got this
25:39which is
25:40very light grey limestone
25:43now I know full well
25:44that that limestone there
25:45is from a higher bed
25:47for that rock
25:48to have found its way down here
25:50it must have fallen down a cavity
25:54what kind of space lay above them?
25:56they pushed on up through the rock
25:59but nothing could prepare them for what they found
26:03the very last push was a matter of just moving all the debris to the side
26:08and wriggling through under this rock
26:10stood up
26:11I just looked at that
26:13and I couldn't see the top
26:15they had emerged into a cathedral sized space
26:27a vast cavern
26:30they had discovered
26:33Titan
26:34we were all absolutely elated
26:36it was great news
26:37that moment
26:38where you've got nothing stopping you
26:40is fabulous
26:42I personally didn't see it as an obsession
26:45but in retrospect
26:47I was absolutely driven
26:49and I was completely obsessed in doing it
26:52but when you're in that zone
26:54you don't see it
26:55you don't see it
26:56you just think it as being normal
26:58but trust me
27:00spending seven years digging a hole in the ground
27:02is not normal
27:03Moose and his friends redrew the map of the peak Speedwell cave system
27:10their final task
27:12creating the shortcut into the top of Titan
27:15allowing fellow cavers
27:18an easier route in
27:20while caves like Titan have remained hidden since their creation
27:27there are other caves in Derbyshire that have been known to locals
27:31for thousands of years
27:32dark underworlds
27:35that became places of deep looted terror
27:3925 miles east of Titan
27:44lie a series of caves that harbored the darkest of secrets
27:55there's evidence here of human cave dwelling dating back 60,000 years
28:01and something mysterious lurks inside these caves
28:08well caves have always been places that have been seen as mysterious
28:15dark evil places where demons and devils lived
28:21so that's why you get all these legends and beliefs about the entrance to caves
28:25and this is something that seeps into folklore
28:28that's where evil was found
28:30here
28:32hidden in the darkness
28:34evidence of an ancient fear
28:36and dark rituals
28:38thousands of enigmatic marks scratched into the walls
28:45they're found in the darkest recesses of these caves
28:53they're found in the darkest recesses of these caves
28:59ignored for centuries
29:00they have only recently been recognized for what they are
29:06so-called witches marks
29:08used in the 16th and 17th centuries as protection against evil
29:17and it was in the 1590s during the reign of King James the sixth of Scotland
29:23that fear of evil reached fever pitch
29:26there was this period when the witchcraft scare was going on
29:30and the king himself bought into this
29:33he was out there looking for witches
29:35he wrote a book called demonology which set out how you find witches
29:39this was a time of superstition
29:42witch hunts trials and persecution
29:46during that period we find a massive concentration
29:49almost on an industrial scale of people making these protective marks
29:53but what do these marks actually mean?
29:59you see a certain type of recurring symbol
30:03the most common example of this is what's known as the Marian mark
30:07and these are like cross V's or like an upside down M
30:12and they are a reference to the Virgin Mary
30:16people were using them in a religious context as an evil aversion
30:21maybe the cows are not giving milk that particular year
30:24maybe the people are afflicted by a disease that they don't understand
30:27and they feel the need to make some kind of magic spell
30:34this is another interesting one here
30:36which is like an elongated eye with horizontal marks across it
30:41this is believed to be a representation of the Greek letter for Jesus
30:46alpha and omega
30:50and we also find like box like markings
30:53and these are thought to be spirit traps
30:57a magic box where it's hoped that a spirit will be trapped
31:01and it will be it will have to go round and round and round endlessly
31:05the majority of the marks are clustered in the darkest part of the cave
31:09a small chamber with a dark hole in the middle
31:19what was it about this particular spot that terrified the local villagers?
31:25you can sort of understand why they would single out this particular part of the cave
31:29because when you see it, it does look forbidding
31:31it's the sort of place that they would imagine the devil and all the various other spirits that they believed in would live
31:38to local people this sinister place had a name
31:44the entrance to hell
31:47there's a massive drop below me that appears to disappear into the bowels of the earth and into the underworld
31:53so we've got this amazing density of carvings in this particular part of the cave
31:59this is where they are really, really concentrated
32:02and it's clearly because this was seen to be the most dangerous part of the cave complex
32:06this is where evil was seen to reside
32:11anything that emerged into the village environment that was bad
32:14this is where it was traced back to
32:17so it needed the maximum amount of magical ritual to keep it here, to keep it in its place
32:31even to our modern psyche, caves can be threatening
32:35they conjure claustrophobic nightmares
32:38and play tricks on the mind
32:40it takes a rare breed of explorer to overcome these fears and descend into the darkness
32:48but for those willing to take on the adventure
32:51the rewards can be spectacular
32:54natural beauty formed over the millennia
33:04in Britain, one cave even became the muse of great artists
33:09it lies on the uninhabited island of Staffa on the west coast of Scotland
33:23Fingal's cave is named after a mythical Irish giant
33:28its forbidding entrance looms over the surrounding sea
33:34the astonishing rock formations aren't limestone
33:37their ancient volcanic lava
33:41that solidified into hexagonal columns
33:44in the 19th century this natural wonder drew in visitors
33:50poets like Keats and Wordsworth
33:53the artist William Turner even painted it
33:57and in 1829 on a visit
34:02Mendelssohn was inspired to compose his Hebrides overture
34:06but Fingal's cave hides a phenomenon
34:11it is illuminated by sunlight only one day a year
34:17on the 16th of December the sun reaches the full 75 yards of the cave
34:25and bathes its back wall in light
34:31sunlight has never entered Titan and it's so big no torch can light it all
34:46today the scanning team aim to reveal Titan by using the latest technology to create a detailed digital map
34:57I'll take that and scan that and then you take the scene
34:59weeks of careful planning have all been leading to this moment
35:03so I'm fairly confident
35:06I'm not sure where Rue will be
35:08I reckon that I'll be a little bit nervous
35:12Phil there's quite a lot riding on this
35:14there's really no reason why it shouldn't work
35:16but it's new technology
35:18Joe will operate the scanner inside Titan
35:20try and make sure it swings the smallest amount he can
35:24and I know that's a big big ask
35:26in order to scan Titan thoroughly
35:31Joe will attach himself to a rope
35:34suspended right down the middle of Titan's gigantic shaft
35:38ascending on the electric seat
35:41he will try to ride smoothly all the way up
35:44so the scanner can capture every rock
35:46and crevice in detail
35:50this can only be done by experienced vertical cavers
35:55expert at caving on ropes
36:00even a minor injury underground could result in a long and dangerous rescue operation
36:07Moose descends into Titan
36:11his task to secure Joe and the scanner to the seat
36:17okay
36:23Joe's going down to do the scan at the bottom of the shaft
36:28that's going to take him an hour, hour and a half or so
36:31I'm going down to bring the data out
36:34and get it down to the computers
36:36and have a look at it as quickly as we can
36:40The support team is in position
36:46ready to go
36:49ready to go
36:53table
36:55this is the moment they have all been waiting for
37:00okay, get it off the floor
37:03there we go
37:04here we go
37:09there we go
37:11here we go
37:12okay
37:13right, let's come by
37:23Joe has lift off
37:25the scanner dangling below him
37:26below him.
37:48Joe approaches the narrow lip of the event horizon.
37:55It's very close.
38:13It's very close.
38:20It's very close.
38:22It's very close.
38:26It's very close.
38:30Finally, Rue goes in.
38:40He has no idea if the scan has been a success.
38:55Is that the precious data?
38:56Yeah.
38:57I'm going to clip it in so I don't drop it.
38:58Got it?
38:59That's it.
39:00I've got it.
39:02I think that went really well.
39:03Fantastic team effort.
39:04All the data is in here, in the scanner.
39:07It's just a question now of getting it down to the computer, uploading it.
39:11And, fingers crossed, everything's okay.
39:12Yeah, that's great.
39:13If the team's scan was successful, it will reveal the most important thing.
39:18I think that went really well.
39:19Fantastic team effort.
39:20All the data is in here, in the scanner.
39:24It's just a question now of getting it down to the computer, uploading it.
39:28And, fingers crossed, everything's okay.
39:32One, two, three, four.
39:37If the team's scan was successful, it will reveal the most detailed images ever of one
39:43of Britain's greatest geological wonders that has lain hidden in the darkness for tens
39:48of thousands of years.
39:55Now, all they can do is wait for the results.
40:02British caves aren't just luring obsessive explorers like Moose into their dark underworld.
40:11They're like a magnet, drawing in scientists and archaeologists, searching for evidence of
40:17an ancient and vanished world.
40:21In the Mendip Hills, six miles from Wookie Hole, lies Cheddar Gorge.
40:29It was here in 1903 that workers digging a drainage trench made a remarkable discovery.
40:36A 10,000-year-old fossilized human skeleton.
40:44Cheddar Man is the oldest complete human skeleton ever found in Britain.
40:50His bones remarkably preserved by the cold, alkaline-rich environment.
40:59Scientists even extracted DNA from his skeleton.
41:03With the skull and DNA analysis, they were able to reconstruct Cheddar Man's face right down to the color of his skin, hair, and eyes.
41:13Allowing us a glimpse of what our earliest human ancestors might have looked like.
41:20A mighty nomadic Stone Age hunter-gatherer who roamed the Mendip Hills over 10,000 years ago.
41:28It's not surprising that Cheddar Man was found in a cave.
41:35The earliest humans used caves for shelter and protection.
41:41But cave dwellers, also known as troglodytes, are not just found in prehistory.
41:51There are countless examples throughout the ages.
42:00From the 12th century cliff dwellings of the ancient Anasazi people.
42:07To a Buddhist monastic center on the ancient Silk Road.
42:16And Britain, too, has had its own recent cave dwellers.
42:3215 miles west of Birmingham, lies a 250-million-year-old sandstone escarpment.
42:44Here, a series of rock houses was home to generations of inhabitants from at least the 18th century right up to the 1960s.
42:54Home to Britain's last troglodytes.
42:57I think to understand the reason why these sorts of dwellings are where they are, we need to understand a little bit the local geology.
43:05We are sitting on a triassic sandstone. Sandstone is a very soft material. Therefore, it's easy to work, it's easy to quarry.
43:15When the first people came into the area and they noticed these natural features, they thought, oh, actually, they could be a natural accommodation.
43:23People were drawn to the area during the Industrial Revolution. An iron foundry opened nearby.
43:31The local economy played an important part. One of the records is telling us that in 1841, only one dwelling was recorded on this particular site with just one family.
43:42By 1851, 1861, we record between 11 and 14 families living on this site.
43:53The examples of the homes on display are from the Victorian period. They're more like cozy cottages than caves.
44:00Just because these were basic accommodation doesn't mean they were poor accommodation. All the dwellings are the fireplace to keep warm. You know, so it was just a very basic way of living.
44:13But times and attitudes changed, and the last family moved out in the 1960s.
44:20People stopped living here mainly for a change in the local economy. The industrial boom with the iron making slowly declined.
44:29So there wasn't really the need anymore for these places to be occupied.
44:36Today, the Kinver Edge rock houses offer a window onto a unique social history.
44:49Titan is far too inhospitable to ever be called home.
44:53But that didn't stop the expert scanning team attempting to measure its vast interior.
44:58Roo has compiled all the scan data.
45:01Hi, Moose.
45:02How are you doing, Roo?
45:03I'm well.
45:04The results can now be revealed.
45:06I've been burning the midnight oil a bit.
45:07I've put all the data together.
45:09But has all the hard work paid off?
45:12Do you want to have a look?
45:13Yeah, too right I do.
45:14Well, here it is.
45:15Wow.
45:16There she is in all our beauty.
45:21As you can see, we really have captured things very, very well.
45:27That's really good.
45:28No one was certain a vertical cavern of this size could be scanned.
45:34It just depicts the shape beautifully, doesn't it?
45:36Yes, absolutely.
45:37And here it is.
45:40380 million data points come together to build an extraordinary virtual underworld.
45:47The first scientifically accurate 3D model of Titan.
45:51Revealing its true shape and dimensions beneath the ground with pinpoint accuracy.
46:01From its high ceiling, through the event horizon, down to the bottom.
46:11The scan reveals Titan's true size.
46:14It measures 476 feet.
46:19So tall, it would dwarf even the Statue of Liberty and still have headroom to spare.
46:26Confirming Titan's place in the record books as Britain's tallest natural cavern.
46:35The scan also allows us to zoom in.
46:38To the exact spot where Moose first entered Titan and gazed up into the dark void above him.
46:49Wow.
46:51Pretty cool, isn't it?
46:52That's like reliving it after 20 years.
46:55So the other thing that really stands out to me is that it shows the geology.
47:00It shows the structure of the cave.
47:02It shows how it's almost how it's formed and why it's there.
47:05The scan reveals the birth of this subterranean giant.
47:12Titan's narrow shape exposes a vertical fault in the rock.
47:17A natural place of weakness that the water exploited as it dissolved the limestone.
47:25But the scan also explains why Titan grew so large.
47:29Amongst the layers of limestone, a layer of ancient volcanic ash.
47:36So at Titan you've got normal rainfall falling down on a fracture zone where you've developed a cave.
47:42But the other ingredient looks like this ash.
47:45This is a volcanic ash that was laid down hundreds of millions of years ago.
47:49But actually is very acidic.
47:52So when you get the dissolved water from the rainfall meeting this acid material.
47:57It produces a really aggressive dissolving agent.
48:01Essentially an acid bath that basically bores its way through.
48:05And I suspect that is why Titan is so big.
48:08Over time this corrosive geological cocktail of water and ash percolated downward.
48:17And Rue's scan reveals the enormity of that process.
48:22Measuring Titan's volume proves that this acid water dissolved away over 1.5 million cubic feet of rock.
48:31Leaving behind a 470 foot deep shaft.
48:36At the edge of the known peak Speedwell cave system.
48:41It was a giant underworld waiting to be discovered.
48:47So would you say it would be possible somewhere in this country of ours to find something that's taller?
48:52There's lots and lots of blank areas where there could easily be something else like that working.
48:57It's postulating it. That's the easy bit.
49:00Yeah.
49:01The hard bit is finding it.
49:02Well that's, I mean that's the whole essence of caving isn't it?
49:04You don't know until you've found it.
49:05Yeah.
49:06That's right.
49:07And that's the thrill of it.
49:08And this is genuine exploration isn't it?
49:10And we're finding new pieces of the planet that we've never seen before.
49:14And it's happening today in Great Britain.
49:19The mission to find the world's hidden caves continues.
49:23Committed explorers like Roo, Moose and cave diver Martin Farr shine light into the darkest places.
49:33But one day their quest could take humanity even further.
49:38In 2009, NASA sent an unmanned satellite to the moon.
49:47It photographed the lunar surface in unprecedented detail and discovered something unexpected.
49:57Caves.
49:59Exploring and mapping these extraplanetary underworlds would at first be done by robots, which are already in development.
50:10I think it's going to create a new explosion of cave exploration on Earth as we road test a lot of these instruments and start to learn a whole lot about cave systems that we just can't access here on Earth.
50:20So it's tremendously exciting.
50:22Charting extraterrestrial underworlds is a far cry from the time when caves were our homes.
50:30But as we head out towards brave new worlds, they may once again be a haven for future generations of explorers.
50:40When we think about planetary travel and planetary mission, we're going to have to stay someplace.
50:45And actually, caves are not a bad place.
50:48They protect us from cosmic radiation.
50:51You know, they have the same ingredients of protection that we had here on Earth.
50:58So caves will probably be a place where we will seek out as places for storage, but also maybe for residential areas as we start to explore new planetary frontiers.
51:08From our ancient ancestors to the future citizens of space, mankind's hunger for exploration draws us deeper into hidden realms.
51:22Who will be next to redraw the map of the underworld?
51:26of the underworld.
51:27universe.
51:28the underworld.
51:29to be found of maps from poie Meanwhile, the underworld around ancientheit realm.
51:39in the underworld.
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