Into the Planet: My Life as a Cave Diver

From one of the world’s most renowned cave divers, a firsthand account of exploring the earth’s final frontier: the hidden depths of our oceans and the sunken caves inside our planet.

More people have died exploring underwater caves than climbing Mount Everest, and we know more about deep space than we do about the depths of our oceans. Into the Planet blends science, adventure, and memoir to bring readers face-to-face with both the terror and the beauty of earth’s remaining unknowns.

Written with hair-raising intensity, this is the first book to deliver an intimate account of cave diving – transporting readers deep into inner space, where fear must be reconciled and success depends on balancing limits with pushing human endurance.

About the Author

Jill Heinerth is one of the top cave divers working today, and one of the very few women in her field. She was the first person in history to dive deep into an Antarctic iceberg and led a team that discovered the ancient watery remains of Mayan civilizations.

Heinerth has descended farther into the inner depths of our planet than any other woman. Her story includes harrowing split-second decisions, the biases women face underwater, and the painful mission to recover a fallen friend’s body. Beyond the danger, she also works with biologists discovering new species, physicists tracking climate change, and hydrogeologists studying our finite freshwater reserves.