Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Underwater Cave 95 Miles Long, Discovered

(12 hours ago 16 March 2007)
The longest underwater cave system in the world, discovered by two divers who have been exploring the system for 4 years, in the Yutucan Peninsula Mexico, diving over 500 times.
Some of the caves are so huge you could fly a 747 thru them.
"We wonder how the roof dos'nt collapse"
http://www.itv.com/news/world_d6826771d82e9400424816ca02d61ff9.html
AND
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/06-03-2007/88030-underwater-cave-0

Thoughts***
In view of the fact that a huge Meteor crashed in the sea, supposedly killing off the Dino's. One wonders how and when these caves were produced?

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"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.
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"...hundreds of feet wide and long and you just swim in and you wonder what's holding the ceiling up."

Yes, well you wouldn't catch me in there, I can tell you that for nothing!

Do you think there might be a KT meteor connection, Mike? It's in the Chicxulub area, isn't it?

I did a Bike Trip down the Yucatan in 1994. The whole place is Limestone, there are caves everywhere, the locals call them "Cenotes" (Say-No-Tays)and "new" ones are being found all the time. The one in Tulum lets you float downstream for about 1/2 a mile in inner tubes. No fish. The water is crystal clear.
There's a cave at a place called Finca Xobel in the Peten District of Guatemala that, with a guide, you can hike to, about an hour away from anywhere. When I was there they figured that fewer than 1,000 Gringos had ever been inside it.

According to a very low definition geology map I have the Yucatan region is early-mid Tertiary, specifically Oligocene. Long after the Chicxulub meteor. Sea level was much higher and the continents were eroded down lower in those days and so it makes sense. I'd think the caves themselves must have been formed above sea level though, presumably during a period of uplift as North and South America moved together. The caves may have been submerged again as recently as the sea level rise at the end of the last ice age, say 10,000 years ago.