Divers reached the bottom of the Great Blue Hole for the first time and were amazed at what they saw in this sinkhole.
A group of fans dived into the depths of this mysterious crater in the Caribbean and discovered what this wonder of Mexico and Belize is made of.
The world is full of mysterious natural places that have spent hundreds of years without knowing how they came to be or what function they served there.
And what is a blue hole?
His name is eloquent. The blue hole, in English, are underwater caves or sinkholes, natural geological formations usually found in karst systems such as Yucatan, formed by the dissolution of limestone. One of their great peculiarities, which distinguishes them from the huge ocean trenches and abysses that are created by the movement of tectonic plates and can be up to 11,000 meters deep, as is the case in the Mariana Islands, is that the blue holes are created with the Seawater flow in limestone soils over centuries.
The Great Blue Hole, Central America’s greatest mystery
One of the greatest unknowns in Central America is the “Great Blue Hole,” a volcanic crater at the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, which only revealed what lies in its depths in 2018.
This hole is not the only one in the world, there are others scattered in different oceans, but here it is the second deepest: 274 meters. It is located very close to the Mexico-Belize border on the southeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Swimming in its waters is impressive and easy to spot from the air as it is surrounded by small land masses and coral reefs.
In the Mayan language it is known as Taam ja’, meaning “deep water”, and it was Jacques Cousteau who made it famous across the globe in 1960.
Although he never dared to dive in, his grandson Fabien and billionaire Virgin Group owner Richard Branson came up with the idea of traveling to the bottom in a submarine.
Six years ago, the first survey was carried out in the crater and what they found inside amazed them. As the submarine moved, the water became darker and darker until it encountered a layer of hydrogen sulfide. After this layer, no more bacteria, fish or algae were found.
The device advanced and discovered several caves with stalactites, which attracted the attention of scientists, as until now it was always believed that they only formed on the surface of the earth.
As they continued their journey through the Great Blue Hole, they were already several meters above the ground, but not touching it. There they saw a 2 liter glass bottle and a GoPro camera. This shows the extent of marine pollution and the distance that trash cans travel. Regrettable.
However, this wasn’t the only thing they found during the expedition. To his surprise, two bodies appeared. It is believed that there were two divers who failed to surface. Both Richard and Fabien informed the government of Belize of their existence, but decided to leave them there.
What does the inside of the Great Blue Hole look like?
According to the magazine Frontiers Marine Scienceswhich published a study on what’s inside the Great Blue Hole on February 23, 2023, indicates that in addition to its size and other interesting data, the sinkhole also has important differences in conditions such as oxygen concentration, chemistry, temperature and biological formations exist.
Taam ja’ has an area of approximately 13,690 m2, the sides are almost vertical and form a “large conical structure”. The door or entrance is located 4.5 and 5 meters below sea level.
Unlike ocean trenches, which are formed by the movement of tectonic plates and can be up to 11,000 meters deep, blue holes are created slowly by salt water flowing in and out of the ground made of limestone rocks.
The world’s largest blue hole is located in Sansha Yongle, China. It is 300 meters deep and is called Dragon Hole.
With information from: