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New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2015 4:33 pm
by Larry E. Matthews
I was browsing Amazon.com earlier today and looking to see what they might have on Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave.

They referred me to the book "100 of the Deepest Caves in the United States" by Alex Trost and Vadim Kravetsky (2013). On page 9 they state:


44. Grassy Cove Saltpetre Cave 7 miles deep.


Well, you can imagine my surprise to learn that Grassy Cove Saltpeter Cave is now 7 miles deep. According to the Tennessee Cave survey, it is only 367 feet deep. Wow, what a discovery that must have been.

Hopefully, someone will fill us in soon on who made this remarkable discovery and, better yet, how much rope you need.

Larry E. Matthews
NSS #6792-F

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2015 4:59 pm
by Caving Guru
By 7 miles deep, I am sure they mean that the cave has 7 miles of mapped passage. When they say, "7 miles deep", it is pretty much the equivalent of when we say a cave is "7 miles long". The deepest point in Grassy Cove Cave is probably still 367 feet from the surface.

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2015 5:34 pm
by Larry E. Matthews
Yes, I'm sure that's what they meant, too. I was just having a little fun with their "terminology".

Larry

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 6, 2015 11:39 pm
by Bob Thrun
The authors have three books on Amazon: 100 of the Deepest Caves in the United States, the World, and Canada. I could only view images of the cover and the Table of Contents. The Table of Contents does not have either cave names or page numbers. Amazon shows that each book is 32 pages long, which means about three caves per page. I do not want to spend $9 or so and be totally disappointed. Has anyone seen these books? I did learn that Fern Cave is 15 miles deep

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 7, 2015 7:05 am
by Larry E. Matthews
One of the FIRST things I did was look to see if the authors were NSS members. No, they are not.

This is one of those modern "Made For Amazon" books that does a Web Search for info, then publishes that info as a book. They are not worth the paper they are printed on.

Uninformed people buy them, thinking they are getting something good, but get nothing but junk.

Larry

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 7, 2015 10:34 am
by Caving Guru
I looked up Alex Trost and Vadim Kravetsky and they apparently have written over 1,000 books which are listed on Amazon including several cave related books including these 18 books (all of which are 30 to 32 pages):

100 of the Best Caves for Spelunking in the World (October 9, 2013)
100 of the Deepest Caves in the World (October 6, 2013)
100 of the Most Dangerous Caves in the World (October 6, 2013)
100 of the Scariest Caves in the World (October 6. 2013)
100 of the Deadliest Caves in the World (October 9, 2013)
100 of the Top Caves for Beginners (October 6, 2013)

100 of the Best Caves for Spelunking in the United States (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Deepest Caves in the United States (October 9, 2013)
100 of the Most Dangerous Caves in the United States (October 9, 2013)
100 of the Scariest Caves in the United States (October 9, 2013)
100 of the Deadliest Caves in the United States (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Top Caves for Beginners in the United States (October 9, 2013)

100 of the Best Caves for Spelunking in the Canada (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Deepest Caves in the Canada (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Most Dangerous Caves in the Canada (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Scariest Caves in the Canada (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Deadliest Caves in the Canada (October 13, 2013)
100 of the Top Caves for Beginners in Canada (October 13, 2013)

And here is a sample of one them, titled "100 of the Deepest Caves in the World":
Image

And this Amazon review pretty much sums up every single one of their 1,000+ books for sale:
Image

Re: New Depth Record For Tennessee

PostPosted: Apr 7, 2015 11:39 am
by Larry E. Matthews
The sad truth is that they are probably making a ton of money off this garbage.

The NSS no longer lists NSS publications on Amazon, because Amazon takes 55% off the TOP. The NSS cannot sell it's books on Amazon at our listed retail prices without LOSING MONEY.

But this trash by these people sells. I'll bet Amazon loves them !!!

Larry