5 mei 2024 om 07:47 Update: 37 min. geleden
Oceanographers have found the world’s deepest underwater cave off the coast of Mexico. The so-called blue hole is so deep that scientists have not yet managed to measure its depth precisely.
It concerns Taam Ja’, an underwater sinkhole off the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, near the border with Belize. Taam Ja’ means ‘deep water’ in Yucatec Maya.
The blue hole reaches at least 400 meters deep, the scientists write Frontiers in Marine Science. This makes it about 100 meters deeper than the previous record holder, the Dragon Hole in the South China Sea.
Oceanographers have not yet reached the bottom of the blue hole. Sound waves reached depths of up to 274 meters without reaching the bottom.
A 500-meter cable also failed to reach the bottom. Because the hole does not run vertically downwards, the scientists reached a depth of 420 meters below sea level. “The bottom is still not in sight,” the researchers write.
The research team now wants to dive into the hole with robots and unmanned submarines to find and map the bottom.
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Tags: Oceanographers find worlds deepest underwater cave coast Mexico Tech Science
