World’s deepest underwater hole discovered off Mexico

Only a small part of the ocean has been fully explored.

As a result, researchers are constantly discovering something new – both about wildlife and underwater landscapes.

A Mexican research team is now coming up with a record.

Rising on the leaderboard

In 2021, a group of scientists discovered a deep hole off Mexico. It got the name yes. It means deep water in the Mayan language, according to the scientific paper published on the discovery in 2023.

Scientists first discovered the hole in 2021. Then they thought it was 275 meters deep.

That would make the blue hole the world’s third deepest. The deepest known hole was the Dragon Hole in China and the Great Blue Hole in Belize. They are respectively 300 meters and 124 meters deep.

Now it has been studied more thoroughly, with better equipment. Now the order looks different.

Haven’t measured to the bottom

Through this new study, divers took sensors with them and disappeared into the dark blue.

The results of these measurements show that the hole is at least 420 meters deep. That is still not the whole truth, the researchers report.

Due to technical limitations, they could not be measured further. They had not adapted the sensors to measure that deep. Thus, they do not know where the hole ends.

In theory, it could be even much deeper, the researchers claim. Later studies will probably provide an answer to that.

Same salinity as in the Caribbean Sea

Blue holes are large sinkholes. It occurs when the limestone on the seabed collapses.

The researchers discovered differences in both temperature and salinity in the water down in the hole. At depth the water was warmer.

The difference in temperature could be about the water getting heat from the earth’s crust, the researchers believe.

That the blue hole is the world’s deepest does not mean that this is the ocean’s deepest point. There is the Mariana Trench, which with its over 11,000 meters is quite a lot deeper.

Reference:

Alcérra-Huerta, Juan Carlos., Reyes-Mendoza, Oscar F., Sanchéz-Sanchéz, Joan A., Álvarez-Legorreta, Teresa and Carrillo, Laura. (2024). Recent records of thermohaline profiles and water depth in the Taam ja’ Blue Hole (Chetumal Bay, Mexico). Frontiers in Marine Science.