The Great Blue Hole is undoubtedly one of the most mysterious places on the planet. It is the largest sinkhole on the planet, 300 meters wide and 123 meters deep.
In December of last year, a team made up of billionaire Richard Branson – founder of Virgin Group -, pilot Erika Bergman of Aquatica Submarines and documentary maker and ocean conservationist Fabien Cousteau – grandson of the famous explorer Jacques Cousteau -, became the first to discover the depths of the bottom of the Great Blue Hole. They dived 123 meters deep. They reached the bottom of this extensive sinkhole off the coast of Belize. To date, it had not been explored.
Now, with the expedition complete, they are back to tell the story of all their finds – apart from new mineral icicles, some unfortunate dead mollusks, and plastic bottles.
The team of explorers mapped the depths of the water hole using sound waves. When sound waves hit various objects and formations, they bounce off in different ways depending on the size and shape of the objects they hit. Using these sonar scans, the researchers created the first three-dimensional map of the area that is 318 meters wide in its entirety. After mapping out this massive geography, they also made some fascinating discoveries.
They found new stalactites, or mineral growths that look like icicles, that formed when sea level was about 150 meters below and the hole was just a dry cave. Over time, the cave eventually collapsed, leaving the area filled with caverns dotted with stalactites.
Erika Bergman wrote that the explorers considered one area of the hole to be a large “conch graveyard” , after observing hundreds of dead shells or mollusks that had apparently fallen into the hole, they were unable to get out and eventually ran out of oxygen and died.
They found tiny footprints where the shells had tried to back up the hill and small slip marks where they apparently slid down. The large number of conches they found indicates that the population of these marine mollusks is likely healthy , Bergman wrote.
What else did they find ?: plastic
The exploration team found remains of plastic bottles in what is apparently one of the most difficult to access places in the world. “The real monsters facing the ocean are climate change and plastic,” explains Branson.
This is not the first time that pioneers from the deep ocean have discovered this disappointing footprint of man in this way. In 2017, researchers studying sea creatures captured at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean at more than 11,034 meters, were surprised to find that 100% of the animals had ingested plastic.
“The results were immediate and surprising,” said Dr. Alan Jamieson of Newcastle University, who led the study. “This type of work requires a lot of contamination control, but there were cases where the fibers could be seen in the stomach contents as they were removed.”
Referencia: Aquatica Submarines
