World's Second-Deepest Blue Hole Found Along Mexico's Coast; Ecological Marvel May Shed Light on Earth's Past Climates

Scientists have recently revealed their mind-boggling discovery: the world's second-deepest blue hole situated along Mexico's coast.

Taam Ja': World's Second-Deepest Blue Hole

The ecological marvel has been dubbed Taam Ja', which translates as "deep water" in Mayan, as reported by MailOnline. It goes as deep as a whopping 900 feet, making it second to the known deepest blue hole in China that has a depth of 987 feet.

As per Yahoo! News, the Bank of America Corporate Center located in Charlotte, North Carolina, has 60 stories and a height of 871 feet. It is the South's tallest skyscraper, yet it may actually fit inside the deep blue hole.

While the Caribbean is also filled with a bunch of blue holes, none go as deep as these.

Yahoo! News adds that its top is almost a perfect circle. Taam Ja' also has an area of roughly 150,000 square feet.

While this blue hole comes as a mind-boggling revelation to the public, its discovery is actually not recent. In fact, it was found in 2021, when a local fisherman aided scientists in a research center. This fisherman, named Jesus Artemio Poot Villa, was the one who discovered the ecological masterpiece.

Now, after looking deeper into this natural wonder, scientists have published their findings in the Frontiers in Marine Science journal.

Scientists are also excited about looking deeper into the hole as it may help them know more about the Earth's climate from a millennium ago.

Blue Holes

According to Live Science, blue holes are huge vertical caves or sinkholes under the sea that can be spotted across coastal areas. Several of these consist of rich marine and plant life, including sharks, sea turtles, and corals.

These ecological marvels come to be when sea water gets into contact with limestone, which is a very porous material. Due to its porous nature, water may easily enter the rock and lead to water-limestone chemical reactions. The limestone ends up getting "eaten away."

Live Science adds that several blue holes in the world could have formed during previous ice ages that hit the planet. In such eras, repeated floods and coastal area drains may have led to rock erosion and void creations.

By the end of the Earth's last ice age roughly 11,000 years ago, sea levels ended up rising. Moreover, such caverns got permeated with water while others ended up fully submerged.

Due to how inaccessible these blue holes are, scientists have been unable to look into several of them. Christopher G. Smith, a coastal geologist form the USGS (US Geological Survey) who did not participate in the research but has looked into different undersea sinkholes, says that blue holes are poorly understood.

Smith further notes that the unique chemistry of seawater inside these voids shows that there could be interaction with groundwater and possible aquifers, which are rock or body sediments that carry groundwater.

These voids also hold minimal oxygen. Sunlight also only hits their surface. Nevertheless, despite such conditions, they are still rich in life that has adjusted to environments where oxygen is low.

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