100,000 Soldiers: A Geological Oddity Not Seen Anywhere Else In The World

When it comes to unexplained geological phenomena, none are doing it quite like the Trabuc Caves.

MADDY CHAPMAN
Copy Editor and Staff Writer

Published
June 9, 2023



The 100,000 Soldiers of the Trabuc Caves are a geological mystery we may never solve.

Image credit: David PAGIS via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

We at IFLScience love a cave. The deeper, bluer, and more terrifying the better. We are also always keen to celebrate the weirdest wonders planet Earth has to offer, and as geological oddballs go, the Trabuc Caves in southern France take the cake.

Situated in Mialet, France, the caves are the largest network of underground passages in the Cévennes. They were first investigated in 1823 and have since been explored to almost 10 kilometers (6 miles), although speleologists – people who study caves – believe them to stretch two to three times farther than that, according to Atlas Obscura.

As well as a rich history of human use – the caves have acted as a refuge for various groups since prehistoric times, including the Camisards during the Reformation and, later, “Trabucaïres”, or highwaymen, from whom they get their name – the caves are renowned for a strange and unexplained phenomenon known as the “100,000 Soldiers”.

When exploration really kicked off in 1945, speleologists were met with what appeared to be thousands of tiny soldiers standing to attention (hence the name), but are in fact a unique type of concretion that still to this day have no explanation.



Image credit: Havang(nl) via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

The “soldiers” litter the cave floor, just a few centimeters tall, and as yet have not been found anywhere else in the world.

More:
https://www.iflscience.com/100000-soldiers-a-geological-oddity-not-seen-anywhere-else-in-the-world-69336