Discovered by explorers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen, the cave was kept a secret for 14 years to protect it from vandalism and exploitation and to ensure the survival of its delicate ecosystem. Kartchner Caverns is a wet living cave into which water still percolates from the surface above and calcium carbonate features are still growing. It has an unusually wide variety of brilliantly colored cave formations, including the longest known Soda Straw stalactite formation in the world.
The contrast between the cave's natural 99%+ relative humidity and the dry desert climate above makes this cave particularly vulnerable. Unmonitored air exchange could quickly destroy the cave's delicate ecosystem, halt speleothem growth and diminish the cave's natural beauty.
Due to the caverns location in the
middle of a transition zone between the Sonoran
Desert and the Chihuahuan Desert there is a great difference
between the annual evaporation rate on the surface (65 inches)
and the evaporation inside the cave that averages a scant
.08 inches per year. The rate of evaporation on the outside
is 800 times greater than the rate inside the cave. Admission
of outside air into the cave would deplete the entire annual
supply of moisture to the cave almost immediately. Therefore,
reducing the potential for increased air exchange was paramount
in the development of Kartchner Caverns to maintain the moist
microclimate of the cave. Therefore, reducing the potential
for increased air exchange was paramount in the development
of Kartchner Caverns to maintain the moist microclimate of
the cave and keep it alive. The staff at Kartchner has been
keeping meticulous records since cave preliminary development
began in 1991. To aid researchers, there are 22 environmental
monitoring stations that measure air temperature, relative
humidity, evaporation rates, air trace gases and airflow in
the cave 24 hours per day.
Then as now, the cave depends on the stewardship and commitment of the best scientists and cave developers in the world to ensure its survival.
