If "spelunking" means exploring in caves, and "-ologist" is a suffix that means "someone who studies something," can you venture a guess as to what a "speleologist" does? Yep, studying caves is actually a real job! These adventurer-scientists spend their days exploring, measuring, and studying the structure and history of caves all over the place. They can also be biologists, studying the life forms that live inside the caves. Most speleologists work for colleges and universities or private geological survey corporations, collecting information that can help us understand the history or the resources that may lie hidden underground. Plus, cool headlamps!
The Details
Speleologists can help to reveal hidden secrets about our planet's past and present.
The biggest cave in the world, Son Doong Cave, was discovered in 1991 in the jungles of Vietnam. Its largest chamber is roughly three miles wide and contains an underground river.