Scientists find a 'blue hole' so deep they can't reach the bottom, and have no idea what is down there
www.earth.com
The Taam ja’ is blue hole is still defined by what we don’t know. We can say it’s deeper than 1,390 feet, and the bottom hasn’t been found.

From the surface, Chetumal Bay looks almost placid – just a wide sheet of water with no hint of drama underneath. But below that calm is Taam ja’, a massive underwater sinkhole, or “blue hole,” that’s turned into an unexpected mystery for scientists.

At first, the plan seemed straightforward: map it with sonar, get a depth, move on. Instead, the early readings created a bigger problem – what if Taam ja’ isn’t anywhere near as shallow as those first numbers suggested?

The most recent measurements point to a hole that drops far deeper than expected, and the true bottom may still be out of reach…

  • ravenaspiring@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    So the line they brought for the CTD was only 500m, and they only made it to 423 before the reading didn’t line up with the wire out.

    So it’s deep, but sometimes you can’t bring the CTD & winch you want, you bring the one you can get.

    They’ll figure it out sooner than later, but for anyone who works with these thing it’s clickbait title.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if someone gets funding or a billionaire to want to film this hole so they’ll stick an ROV in it and make a documentary about it. That would probably be more reliable than a standalone CTD or rosette.

  • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    0·
    1 month ago

    We should know about how deep it is if we know the dimensions of the Earth’s core. There has to be a good amount of rock between that and the bottom of this trench.

    We may not be able to send a human (or other biological being) down there, but we can certainly run a pipe down there. The question is, can we get lights and a camera that can withstand the pressure and show us what’s down there? I wanna say yes, we have solid state lighting that would not be subject to pressure, same for recording materials, but I’m not 100% sure. I would say for a camera you need space between the lens and the glass, and the lens and the image sensor, but I’m not sure you can’t just use glass instead of air, if it’s clear enough.

    I am almost certain it can be reached, but I’m almost certain a human can’t go there.

    • degenerate_neutron_matter@fedia.io
      0·
      1 month ago

      We have submersibles that can explore and even carry a human to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, which is over 10km deep, far deeper than this hole could possibly be. But they are very expensive and I’d guess it’s not worth the cost to map out an obscure feature of a bay.