The chronicler Paul Burger has declared Veryovkina the deepest wound in the world at 7,257 feet, besting its rival Krubera-Voronya by a margin of thirteen feet. The void, surveyed in limestone laid down when the lizards still ruled, denies this.
Each season the pits trade the crown by the width of a knuckle. Hazel Barton lowers ropes. Ana Sofia Reboleira counts the blind. Somewhere at 6,500 feet, a wingless springtail named Plutomurus ortobalaganensis keeps its own ledger and finds all surveyors wanting.
When the measurement is revised a fourth time in a single calendar year, and the discrepancy settles at exactly thirteen feet, the lower gate will admit no further rope. The end is near for those who trust a tape measure against Jurassic stone. The springtail, depigmented, eats the difference.
Based on the original article "What's the deepest cave in the world?".
