A new study in a science journal called Frontiers in Marine Science talks about a really big underwater hole called the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole, located in Mexico’s Chetumal Bay. Scientists went diving in December and found out that the Blue Hole goes as deep as 1,380 feet! That’s almost the same height of famous Trump Tower in Chicago! The hole is so deep that there might be new kinds of sea creatures living down there that we haven’t discovered yet.
The new blue hole goes down to 1,380 feet deep, which is even deeper than the previous deepest one called the Sansha Yongle Blue Hole (also known as the Dragon Hole) found in the South China Sea. It’s deeper by 480 feet, according to the reports.
These underwater holes are really amazing natural formations. They’re called blue holes, and scientists call them Karst formations. They’re like huge underwater caves that go straight down and also spread out sideways. They’re made by water from glaciers a long time ago. They look like stunning blue sinkholes that go hundreds of feet deep.
Exploring these deep holes is hard because there’s no oxygen down there, and there’s a dangerous gas called hydrogen sulphide. It means you need special equipment and also need to be trained to proceed with the exploration.
Back in 2021, when they first found the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole, they could only measure its depth to 900 feet using echo-sounders. This didn’t give them a clear picture. But later, they went diving again with better tools. They used a CTD profiler, which measures things like how salty the water is, its temperature, and how deep it is. This fancy tool was connected to a long cable and was used to send back data in real-time as they went down, giving them a much better understanding of the hole’s environment.
Even with their fancy equipment, the researchers couldn’t reach the very bottom. The cable stopped at 1,380 feet, maybe because there’s a ledge down there or the water’s moving too fast. But they’re still determined to find out what’s at the very bottom!
Scientists think that at the bottom of the hole, there might be a bunch of caves and tunnels all connected to each other, like a maze. In this hidden world, there could be creatures living there that we’ve never seen before, thriving in the dark.
The effects could be huge. Some people think that the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole might be like an underwater version of a black hole. It could be a doorway to hidden ecosystems that have been around for a really long time, maybe even since ancient times.
This idea isn’t too crazy. Back in 2012, scientists found special bacteria living in blue holes in the Bahamas. These bacteria were able to survive even though there was no light at all. This World’s Deepest Blue Hole Discovered suggests that tough environments can have creatures that can survive in ways we never thought was possible. It gives us a hint of what life on other planets might be like.
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