Inside Costa Rica’s ‘cave of death’ which kills all that enters

The Recreo Verde tourist complex in Venecia de San Carlos, Costa Rica, is home to a tiny mountain cavern that has come to be known as The Cave of Death due to its ability to kill any creature that enters it.

Locals in the Alajuela Province call this six-foot-deep and ten-foot-long hell hole — accompanied by warning signs of skulls and crossbones — the Cueva De La Muerte, or the cave of death in English.

A seemingly cozy refuge for insects, birds, and small animals looking for shelter.

But appearances can be deceiving, as entering this tiny cavern results in an almost instant death.

Although the tiny cave looks harmless to the naked eye, it is filled with carbon dioxide,

“This is a very small cave, but it’s unusual in that there’s a substantial seep of carbon dioxide gas coming,” explorer Guy van Rentergem said in a YouTube video at the site, measuring 30 kilograms of that CO2 being emitted per hour.

(In Costa Rica, there is a cave void of oxygen that kills almost all that enters.Recreo Verde)

To demonstrate just how lethal the Cave of Death actually is, local guides place a lit torch inside the cavern and it is extinguished instantly by the absence of oxygen and the high concentration of carbon dioxide.

(The cave of death in Costa Rica kills almost all that enters it.Recreo Verde)

No one really knows exactly where the carbon dioxide in the Cave of Death comes from, but a number of researchers concluded that the organic nature of the gas suggests that it is the result of mineral deposits subjected to high temperatures and pressures in the earth’s magma, where oxygen is absent. The cave’s location in the vicinity of an active volcano may also have something to do with the gas.

One thing is for certain, scientists have found that la Cueva de la Muerte produces about 30kg of carbon dioxide every hour.

The lethal properties of this tiny cavern were discovered by accident during the building stages of the Recreo Verde complex.

Ref: Inside Costa Rica’s ‘cave of death’ which kills all that enters (nypost) Photo Credit- Recreo Verde