Atlantic ocean: Terra incognita СИНЯЯ ДЫРА / Great Blue Hole

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PHOTO: Wbader 17°18'55.84"С 87°32'4.49"З

В Карибском море, неподалеку от побережья маленькой страны Белиз, находится одно из самых необычных в мире мест для дайвинга: так называемая Синяя Дыра. На глубине 145 м скрывается тайная система пещер и коридоров, которая тянется в глубь материка. Синяя Дыра относится к системе белизского барьерного рифа — второго по величине в мире. Дыра — это вход в систему пещер и туннелей, которыми пересечена древняя, состоящая из пористой известняковой породы, гора. Во многих подводных «комнатах» можно увидеть свешивающиеся с потолка сталактиты, которые наросли в пещерах за миллионы лет.

 

 

The Great Blue Hole is a large underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. It lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef, a small atoll 100 kilometres (62 mi) from the mainland and Belize City. The hole is circular in shape, over 300 metres (984 ft) across and 125 metres (410 ft) deep. It was formed as a limestone cave system during the last glacial period when sea levels were much lower. As the ocean began to rise again, the caves flooded, and the roof collapsed.[2] Believed to be the world’s largest feature of its kind, the Great Blue Hole is part of the larger Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, a World Heritage site of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This site was made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau who declared it one of the top ten scuba diving sites in the world. In 1971, he brought his ship, the Calypso, to the hole to chart its depths.[3] Investigations by this expedition confirmed the hole's origin as typical karst limestone formations, formed before rises in sea level in at least four stages, leaving ledges at depths of 21, 49 and 91 meters (69, 161 and 299 ft). Stalactites were retrieved from submerged caves, confirming their previous formation above sea level. Some of these stalactites were also off-vertical by 10°-13° in a consistent orientation, thus indicating that there had also been some past geological shift and tilting of the underlying plateau, followed by a long period in the current plane.

Геоглифы Сахары

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