Mexico’s Taam Ja’ Blue Hole is the deepest known underwater sinkhole in the world, researchers have discovered — and they haven’t even reached the bottom yet.
New measurements indicate the Taam Ja’ Blue Hole (TJBH), which sits in Chetumal Bay off the southeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, extends at least 1,380 feet (420 meters) below sea level.
That’s 480 feet (146 m) deeper than scientists initially documented when they first discovered the blue hole in 2021, and 390 feet (119 m) deeper than the previous record holder — the 990-foot-deep (301 m) Sansha Yongle Blue Hole, also known as the Dragon Hole, in the South China Sea.
There’s also a giant eel lurking in one of the caves that pops out when you swim near it and scares the shit out of me every time.
Just don’t forget the seahorse!
THIS is where we need AI! Load a bunch of cute underwater drones that can go down and gently explore and take pictures and videos for us. Instead some paper will use AI for a" journalists rendition" of what might be down there.
And what if they never return and nothing is ever found except a single propeller with a wicked looking tooth embedded in it? Huh? What then?
Your cute drones awakened an unnamed horror that was content to stay asleep. You just had to send AI. Well, congratulations, you’ve doomed us all.
It’s for the best
We have MOABs, Davey Crockets, and depleted uranium rounds. The horrors of the deep can come.
I’m pretty sure nuclear depth charges were also developed at some point.
If there arent any left I suspect they could just make one.
Also fun fact the USS Nevada (BB-36) was nuked twice one from above and another below. Neither worked so they had to shell it for a day and some change.
The monsters in the godzilla universe feed on radiation.
We need AI that can be convinced to join a cult to the elder ones
So either way AI is gonna get us killed
It seems nearly certain
Record for deepest brown hole still held by <your mom>.
There would be a good loot chest down the bottom
So I remember launch day in SWOTOR. We rolled pubie, and the “capital hub” so to speak was coruscant, it was the world you were sent to after getting off the noob world.
Some one was standing at the flight path for the hangar bay/capital building and stuff, looking over the side and wondering what was down there.
So, I told him- sarcastically, I might add- that there was a loot chest with guaranteed epics, maybe even a legendary mount.
I ran off cuz… launch day, had stuff to do…. About thirty seconds later I’m getting blasted in zone chat cuz the dumbass jumped.
So somebody else told the guy he was jumping off the Wrong spot, go to the other corner. Look for the air vent.
I feel bad for this guy, cuz he jumped like 3-4 times being a lootwhore before apparently retelling imp.
Don’t go down there, guys. Everyone down there is an asshole. Trust me, I went down there with some squid buddies and those guys in that cave system are fucking racist.
I wonder how long it would take them to map out the caves and things - using drones and such. Screw diving down there!
I once knew a guy who spelunked and wrote cave-mapping (not underwater cave) software as a hobby. Had another friend who worked on automated cave-navigating robots.
It’s a surprising pain to do.
Above ground, surveyors can typically use landmarks. But underground, you don’t have long lines of sight.
GPS doesn’t work underground, as you can’t receive through rock.
Errors in inertial navigation can add up over time, if you’ve ever seen an automated-mapping robot without some kind of absolute reference have error build up – the map twists and distorts.
While it’s not specific to being underground, being underground can, if there’s iron deposits nearby, dick with compass accuracy.
The guy who wrote the cave-mapping software did some sort of mechanism where you’d take the longest lines of sight you could from cave wall to cave wall, and then measure angles between laser beams, ping-pong off walls through the cave.
I don’t know how well even lasers work in underwater caves. My understanding is that part of the reason that cave diving can become really dangerous is that if you stir up silt, visibility can head towards zero, which can leave cave divers with no way to see anything and no obvious route to the surface. I’d imagine that silt could also cause problems for laser beams.
Sounds like youre gonna want some sonar
from the Wiki article: “The deepest blue hole in the world at 300.89 meters (987 feet) deep is in the South China Sea and is named the Dragon Hole, or Longdong.”
Longdong, haha!
I started to say this, but I was at a traffic light and it turned. You beat me to it.
The deepest blue hole in the world at 300.89 meters (987 feet) deep is in the South China Sea and is named the Dragon Hole, or Longdong.
:|
Multiple Leviathan class lifeforms detected in the area. Are you sure what you’re doing is worth it?
Is that the location where the dinosaur killing asteroid crashed at?
It’s not far from it, but this is on the eastern side of the Yucatán peninsula. The Chicxulub crater is on the Northwestern side of the peninsula. I’m not equipped to weigh in on if it may be related, though.
That peninsula is always up to something
I’m not equipped to weigh in on if it may be related, though.
Yeah that’s basically was going to be my next question, curious if it’s just the aftermath of such a huge impact with the Earth kind of thing.
Why do your comments have a license attached to them?
Why do your comments have a license attached to them?
Its an anti Commercial-AI license. Basically to try to limit bots and prevent my comments being used to program AI models.
That’s really novel, creative, and intelligent. You are a smart person!
That’s really novel, creative, and intelligent. You are a smart person!
Tnank you, but I’m not the one to thank. That would be @onlinepersona@programming.dev. I’m just following their lead.
Blue holes are generally created via similar methods to sink holes. Basically sandstone erosion, also I dont think an impact like that would leave any cave systems. Remember that asteroid was about the size of Texas, im pretty sure most things in the region we’re nuked and I cant imagine much more than a crater could be created.
Definitely not the size of Texas. Estimated 10-15 km across.
I dont think an impact like that would leave any cave systems.
I’m not a planetary geologist, but I was just thinking more like afterwards, as the planet healed, and water shifted around.
I can actually correct myself, apparently at the edge of the crater sink holes do form. But I still suspect the two are pretty much unrelated due to distance.
Not it.
If you go down far enough, you come out in Loch Ness
Oh yeah this is where you get the New Wave Bossa Nova, right?
