Off the coast of Belize exists a giant sink in Earth ’s sea . Known as the Great Blue Hole , it is 300 measure ( 984 feet ) across and reaches a deepness of 124 cadence ( 407 feet ) . No visible light or atomic number 8 is found at the bottom of the hole , so it ’s not a surprise that it has retained an atmosphere of closed book about itself .
A late expedition shining a literal light on the muddle made several intriguing uncovering about what ’s within the deep maw . Where light did n’t reach , the team used speech sound . They were capable to get the first three - dimensional sonar image of the swallow hole .
“ With a assortment of sonar heads , used sequentially over the path of the pleasure trip , we ’ve been able to create a high-pitched - resolution , three - dimensional sonar image of the interior of the Great Blue Hole , ” Erika Bergman , oceanographer and the chief submarine pilot on the expedition , publish in a blog post onSouthern Fried Science .
The team was intrigued by certain aim in special . Among them , they want to study the stalactite caverns at depths between 40 and 50 meters ( 130 and 160 feet ) . These formed back when the sea layer was over 100 meter ( about 330 metrical unit ) lower and the Great Blue Hole was a dry cave , about 15,000 years ago . Marine lifeforms have now turned those geological formations into their own home .
The team also observed a level of calcium carbonate at 88 meters ( 290 feet ) , where a barrier reef used to exist . They also looked for the front of stalactites and stalagmite near the bottom of the yap . They found some evidence of lowly geological formation covered in backbone , which over the millenary had go into the sink .
“ This is also evidenced by the ' conch graveyard , ' a stretchability of the blue hole where we observed hundreds of all in conch that had presumably fallen into the golf hole and been unable to escape the steep bulwark or endure long without O . It was otherworldly down there and our information is one more way to share this revelation , ” Bergman excuse .
The expedition included some famous names such as billionaire Richard Branson and Fabien Cousteau . Cousteau is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau , Centennial State - artificer of the first dependable and successful undefendable - circuit Aqua-Lung .
