Featured Image Credit: Ted Talks via Youtube
By: Amanda Kelley
When you think of the word “explorer,” what comes to mind?
You may think of past explorers like Colonial Era Captain, Columbus, setting sail in pursuit of new lands and riches. Or future explorers on daring space adventures in search of new planets and life forms.
In today’s ever-expanding globalized society, it is hard to believe that there is any more discovering left to be done here on Earth.
Well, Jill Heinerth is a bonafide modern day explorer, and she’s been taking giant leaps for mankind right here on Earth, under the waves. Some of the places she has been have been visited by less people than have been on the moon!
Just check out this intense video about a few of her accomplishments:
Heinerth is one of the brave and skilled few to participate in cave diving – the deadliest activity for divers who aren’t properly trained for this specialized environment. Since poor preparation for cave diving has claimed many lives, signs like these can be seen posted at cave locations around the world:
Via imgur.com
Diving has its risks as it is, and with the added factors of confined quarters and complete darkness, cave diving reaches a new level of scary. But fear doesn’t stop properly trained professionals like Heinerth from pursuing their passion and doing what they do best.
In 1998, Jill Heinerth was part of the team that produced the first 3D map of an underwater cave in real time: an incredible feat for the technology of the time. The Canadian cave diver has worked with biologists, climatologists, geologists and pretty much any “-ologist” you can imagine!
Image Credit: Jill Heinerth
She has helped to make some incredible strides in the realm of aquatic science, and has gained some major bragging rights along the way.
Heinerth has penetrated further into underwater cave systems than any other female cave diver. In a profession that is predominantly populated by men, she became the first person EVER to dive the ice caves of an Antarctic iceberg. She’s earned her spot as the world’s top underwater cave explorer.
Image Credit: Jill Heinerth
It would not be an overstatement to call Heinerth a living legend. Above all of her whole host of accolades, b she is an inspiration to divers everywhere for turning her curiosity into a career and going where no man (or woman) has gone before.
If you want to know more about Jill Heinerth, listen to her speak about some of her work in this video. Also, check out our sources here, here, and here.