15/05/2013
National Speleological Society Fellow and NSS News Editor Dave Bunnell took this photo of the inner chamber of Painted Cave, a sea cave on Santa Cruz Island, California. Dave writes, "This is one of the largest sea caves known. With its dark walls and deep water, this chamber is one of the darkest places I've ever visited and took many attempts over the years to light up. It was illuminated by flashbulbs. On the right you can see a sharp edge formed where the near-perpendicular faults of the big room and the entrance passage intersect. The entrance is 600 feet away out of the left side of the photo, and you can see a little bit of the light it casts." See more of Dave's photos at Under Earth Images or www.underearth.us, and learn more about his Virtual Cave project at http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtcave/index.html.