Francesco Sauro studies caves and other karst features, and his research takes him places no one has ever been before.
Why you should listen
Italian speleologist Francesco Sauro is fascinated by the tabletop mountains of South America, the tepuis. These plateaus, which tower over the Brazilian and Venezuelan rainforest, hide behind their dramatic landscape a lost world of extensive cave structures. They harbor unique geological and biological features that have evolved in isolation over millennia.
With nearly twenty years of caving experience, Sauro has participated in research in many cave systems all over the world, but keeps coming back to the tepuis, where he has led six expeditions since 2009. He leads also a caves training program for European astronauts.
Francesco Sauro’s TED Talk
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December 9, 2016
A team of geologists has been exploring the caves beneath the table mountains of Venezuela, where new lifeforms may have been quietly developing for millions of years. Journalist Lars Abromeit describes the expedition into the unknown.
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Gallery: How caves give astronauts a preview of life in space
December 15, 2015
Dark, isolated and largely unexplored, caves help astronauts prepare to do extra-terrestrial science
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Gallery: A journey into the world’s oldest and most puzzling caves
October 28, 2015
Cave explorer Francesco Sauro shares astonishing images from a trip into what might just be the oldest caves in the world ... carved into the quartzite Tepui mountains of Venezuela.
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