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A young exploration of a fabled blue hole in the SouthChinaSea has found that the underwater feature is the deep bed on Earth .
harmonise toXinhua News , Dragon Hole , or Longdong , is 987 human foot ( 300.89 meters ) deep , far deep than the former record holder , Dean ’s Blue Hole in the Bahamas . ( That grim hole measure about 663 feet , or 202 m , abstruse . ) consort to Xinhua , local fable prevail that Dragon Hole is mentioned in the Ming dynasty novel " Journey to the West , " in which a supernatural rascal character start a magical cudgel from an submarine kingdom ruled by a dragon .
The findings have yet to be affirm or reviewed by scientists in the field , but if they hold up , the measure peg down Dragon Hole as far cryptic than Dean ’s Blue Hole , say Pete van Hengstum , a maritime geologist at Texas A&M University at Galveston , who conducts research on blue kettle of fish and sinkholes throughout the Caribbean region . [ See exposure of 8 Amazing Sinkholes ]
Underwater wonders
Blue hole arewater - occupy sinkholesthat form in carbonate rock-and-roll such as limestone . Over long period of time , the carbonate rock dissolves in the subsurface to imprint caves or cavity , van Hengstum told Live Science .
" Eventually , the process of dissolution causes the cave to reach very close to the Earth ’s surface , and if the cave ceiling crock up , a blue trap or swallow hole is formed , " he say .
Some down hole , like Dragon Hole , give up to the marine surround , while others are inland .
It ’s something of a mystery why blue holes mold incisively where they do and what factor shape their development . Chemical reactions at the interface of saltwater and fresh water can create weak acids that corrode aside at limestone and other carbonate , said Lisa Park Boush , a geoscientist at the University of Connecticut who studies blue - hole deposit in the Bahamas . As a result , rising and falling ocean levels can influence when and where blue holes grade . [ In Photos : Stunning Blue Holes from Around the World ]
" There is also a group of researchers looking into microbial processes , " Boush told Live Science . In some cases , she said , microbe activity might serve to resolve fundamentals and contribute to the formation of spicy holes .
In improver to microbes , other organisms also call these jaw - droppingly gorgeous hole home .
Blue-hole life
" It ’s interesting to see what actually live in these gamey golf hole , " tell Boush , who called the environment of puritanical fix " cryptic . "
scientist with the Sansha Ship Course Research Institute for Coral Protection in China used an underwater robot and a astuteness sensing element to investigate the mysterious environment of Dragon Hole , which is a well - have a go at it feature in Yongle , a coral reef near the Xisha Islands in the South China Sea , harmonize to Xinhua . They find more than 20 marine organisms living in the upper portions of the muddle . Below about 328 feet ( 100 m ) , the saltwater in the blue gob had almost no oxygen , and thus small aliveness , the investigator told Xinhua on July 22 .
Even so , diving in blue holes is extremely grave , she said .
" One of the reason why it ’s very dangerous is because of the modified oxygen , " she say . " And sometimes there are even sulphuric waters . "
Well - trained divers can make the journeying , van Hengstum said . In other cases , researchers park a boat right above a blueish hole and ship equipment down to measure deepness , temperature , oxygenation and other gene . Both Boush and van Hengstum conduct research on the deposit at the bottom of blue holes . These sediments contain data about the past environment and clime variety — andsometimes fossils .
The Dragon Hole in the South China Sea belike work in an environment that ’s like to depressed holes in the Bahamas , van Hengstum enounce . Many blue yap currently flooded by seawater in the Bahamas in all probability originated as swallow hole during a glacial period when ocean levels were lower , but subsequently became flooded after the last water ice age , when continental glaciers melt and spheric sea levels increase , he articulate .
The Bahamas sit on a big platform of carbonate that ’s up to 2,000 feet ( 610 m ) compact in spot , Boush say . Some of this carbonate is built up by reef organism like precious coral , which excrete calcium carbonate as a sort of protective structure . But atomic number 20 carbonate come from many place , Boush say , including calcareous algae ( imagine alga with hard , calcium - carbonate tegument ) and even angle poop .
" Fish eat the coral reefs , " Boush said . " They champ on it — parrotfish , for good example . When you go scuba diving , you hear ' dawn , click , click , click , fall into place , ' and that is the parrotfish eating parts of the Rand . Well , what goes in go out again . "
Original article onLive scientific discipline .
