Hidden Earth 2025

New Remote Areas on the Amazon Basin's Rim in Peru - Canaan and Tragadero Z

45 minute Lecture|Pete Talling

Abstract

The thrill of pure exploration involves highly uncertain outcomes, and the few remaining mountain ranges previously untouched by caver's wellies. This talk will summarise the search for uncertainty in two new and very remote areas in North Peru, which involve walking over the crest of the Andes Mountains to reach the edge of the Amazon rainforest. Tantalising large river sinks had previously been spied from satellite images, leading to this area being nicknamed 'the super-karst', but efforts to reach them through the Amazon jungle had failed. In September 2025 a small team of cavers from Peru, UK, France and US will try to find an alternative way over the Andes to see if the super-karst area exists, and what dark holes it may contain.