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…
Send some billionaires in a fancy sub! They have a great track record in the deep.
It’s still astounding that really happened and wasn’t just the plot of a “Down Periscope” type movie.
If only they’d have gotten advice from [REDACTED], the director of Titanic.
Haha.
If only they’d done a 30 second search on why this is a bad idea… Or the lack of testing.
The thing is they DID test it! And they even had a working failure detection mechanism with the microphones. They had seen the signs of failure from previous dives. And then just ignored all of that.
The CEO also left the sub exposed to the Canadian winter and freeze/thaw cycles because he was too cheap to pay for climate controlled storage
Wow.
Guess their definition of test and mine are different. I’d want a whole slew of testing regimen, including test to failure over a long time - essentially years of running it unmanned.
You can definitely thoroughly test something then ignore the results.
I don’t think it would’ve mattered because they had all the evidence they needed and just ignored it regardless.
I feel bad for the kid who wanted to back out at the last second, and didn’t simply because he was worried he’d disappoint his father
Send them all, in one big one.
Ok, but only if it’s not as big if it comes back up.
I assume a guy named Dave is running a sushi shop nearby with some pals?
And one of those pals is the coolest dude ever?
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.
deleted by creator
Cash me outside girl, Hawk Tuah girl, and a Kardashian
Avatar Rule 34 be like.
Accepted
That’s a search that seems like it could backfire horribly.
Was gonna make a similar joke but with Smurfette.
Scientists discover OP’s mom.
I clicked on this thing ONLY for the yo-momma joke. Thanks for being there and doing the needful … which also was OP’s mom.
I think they are wondering how deep it is not how thick
came into the comments to make sure someone says that.
Whatever might be down there isn’t expected to be valuable enough to risk limb and dollar to reach.
FTFY
It’d probably be less expensive than something stupid like sending a Tesla to orbit.
Didn’t they basically just use it as a payload for a test flight, though?
If you’re already launching garbage into orbit, you might as well use your specific garbage for marketing.
Just a beer bottle probably.
Relevant username.
Below about 1,300 feet (400 meters), the trend shifted. Temperature began to creep upward slightly while salinity climbed even higher. That combination suggests the deeper water has a different origin – its own distinct “signature.”
When the team compared the measurements to nearby regional waters, the upper layers lined up with the bay’s mixed, lower-salinity water. The deepest measured layers, though, moved toward values more typical of Caribbean marine water.
That doesn’t prove there’s one big open tunnel connecting Taam ja’ directly to the Caribbean, but it does support the idea that the deepest water isn’t coming only from the bay above.
Yeah I reckon I could figure out how deep it is but I’m kind of busy right now with other stuff.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
You joke but the Mayans used a lot of these cenotés as places to sacrifice people, so you’re probably right lol
Why do so many of the exact same posts, not cross-posts, show up twice on my feed?
It’s a known bug that lemmy/fed may need to address. I regularly see 7-10 copies of the same post, not linked, not deduped.
Sounds like they need to try harder.
Interesting read!
Papa Smurf’s butthole?
Btw, there’s no standing wave sonar, to avoid bouncing off on the side? Since you can’t really “laser” sound waves.
