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No One Knows What Lurks at the Bottom of This Freakishly Deep Submerged Cave

posted by Fnord666 on Monday September 14 2020, @04:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the deep-thinking dept.
News

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

No One Knows What Lurks at the Bottom of This Freakishly Deep Submerged Cave:

New research suggests Hranice Abyss—the world's deepest freshwater cave—is around 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) deep, which is more than twice the depth of previous estimates.

Back in 2016, scientists measured the depth of Hranice Abyss at 1,552 feet (473 meters), but they suspected it was deeper because their remotely operated vehicle had reached the end of its fiber-optic communication cable. Now, using multiple geophysical imaging techniques, a research team led by Radek Klanica from the Czech Academy of Sciences has established a new estimated depth for Hranice Abyss. A paper describing this research was recently published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.

[...] Geologist Francesco Sauro from the University of Bologna, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Science that the newly derived depth of the abyss is "impressive" and that the new paper is "a good example of how you should do things." Similar processes could've formed other submerged caves, some of which could even be deeper, he said. As for what types of organisms might exist at the bottom of the cave, Sauro said: "We don't know exactly what could be down there."

Journal Reference:
Radek Klanica, Jaroslav Kadlec, Petr Tábořík, et al. Hypogenic Versus Epigenic Origin of Deep Underwater Caves Illustrated by the Hranice Abyss (Czech Republic), Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (DOI: 10.1029/2020JF005663)

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  • (Score: 5, Funny) by looorg on Monday September 14 2020, @04:38PM (8 children)

    by looorg (578) on Monday September 14 2020, @04:38PM (#1050832)

    If it's not a monster of some kind and/or a portal to another dimension I'll be slightly disappointed.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @04:40PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @04:40PM (#1050833)

      I am going to go with dirt or rocks or both.

      • (Score: 1) by gmby on Tuesday September 15 2020, @03:53AM

        by gmby (83) on Tuesday September 15 2020, @03:53AM (#1051139)

        I say water, lots of water! Oh and a bottom.

        --
        Bye /. and thanks for all the fish.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @05:06PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @05:06PM (#1050846)

      It's those USOs (the unidentified submerged objects). The aliens all hide out there.

      • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday September 14 2020, @06:49PM (1 child)

        by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 14 2020, @06:49PM (#1050921)

        Or is it the "Unidentified Submerged Aquariums"? 'Cause I recall a president of the USA saying something about human beings and fish coexisting peacefully...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @08:25PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @08:25PM (#1050961)

          It's the one from little mermaid?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday September 14 2020, @07:54PM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday September 14 2020, @07:54PM (#1050950)

      The springs in Florida often have things like mastadon skeletons...

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Monday September 14 2020, @08:18PM

      by edIII (791) on Monday September 14 2020, @08:18PM (#1050960)

      Yes. I'm thinking Lovecraftian portals myself. Near the very bottom an ornate archway with ancient symbols seemingly in motion due to their multidimensional nature. Going through the portal leads you to an impossibly big abyss, where eldritch gods lay sleeping in the cold vast expanse of dark waters teeming with lower creatures endlessly searching for flesh to rend apart.

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.

    • (Score: 2) by drussell on Monday September 14 2020, @08:52PM

      by drussell (2678) on Monday September 14 2020, @08:52PM (#1050972) Journal

      It's probably one of the tunnels that Ogopogo and Nessie use...

  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday September 14 2020, @04:41PM (3 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 14 2020, @04:41PM (#1050834) Journal

    Can't they use sonar and the same sorts of algorithms that are used to reconstruct CT scans into 3d to determine the shape of the cave?

    I know I'm saying "Sure do this extremely complex and difficult thing to solve this one specific problem" but I would have thought tomography would be easily translated into different media.

    • (Score: 2) by DECbot on Monday September 14 2020, @05:45PM

      by DECbot (832) on Monday September 14 2020, @05:45PM (#1050868) Journal

      Sure, could you do the energy differential calculations necessary to perform mapping on depths of a couple kilometres of earth and water instead of just a few cm of flesh and fluid? And then the predict the increased number of datapoints necessary to catalog the return signal?
       
      Though to be fair, I understand this is done to some extents to locate subterranean cavities (caves/secret Egyptian burial chambers) and oil fields but without a high degree of resolution.

      --
      cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by PiMuNu on Monday September 14 2020, @06:23PM (1 child)

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday September 14 2020, @06:23PM (#1050906)

      How do you do tomography?

      Sound waves through water - there is no directional information (there is only one entrance).

      Sound waves through earth - the sound waves are strongly attenuated.

      Muon tomography has been proposed for this sort of thing, but one would need to place a muon detector at the bottom of the cave, and even with atmospheric muons the attenuation at much depth be quite severe.

      • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday September 14 2020, @06:25PM

        by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday September 14 2020, @06:25PM (#1050907)

        > seismic refraction and reflection

        Scratch that - I guess this is close to "tomography" of which GP speaks.

  • (Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday September 14 2020, @04:56PM

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Monday September 14 2020, @04:56PM (#1050841) Journal

    Does that include a camera? And flash?

    Here ya go [pinimg.com]

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..

  • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday September 14 2020, @05:08PM (1 child)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Monday September 14 2020, @05:08PM (#1050848) Journal

    https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hranick%C3%A1_propast [wikipedia.org]

    Note the English version of this article is rather uninformative.

    The major problem with doing measures is wooden stuff at depth 205m, which poses obstacle for both echolocation and wired probes.
    Watered part is still estimated down to 1000-1200m.

    Also note monster hypothesis is not debunked yet. Be careful touring over there.

    --
    Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday September 14 2020, @06:27PM

      by Immerman (3985) on Monday September 14 2020, @06:27PM (#1050909)

      Thanks. The Google Translate version for anyone else that can't read čeština:

      The Hranice Abyss, also called Macůška [1], is an abyss in the Hranice Karst, located on the right bank of the Bečva River in the Hůrka u Hranic National Nature Reserve in the cadastre of the town of Hranice in the Přerov District in the Olomouc Region. The depth of the dry part of the abyss is 69.5 m. [2] According to findings from 2020, the depth of the flooded part is probably around 1 km, which makes it the deepest flooded freshwater cave in the world. [3]
      Content

              1 Description
              2 Depth
              3 Access
              4 Reputation
              5 References
                      5.1 References
                      5.2 Related articles
                      5.3 External links

      Description
      The lower part of the abyss with Hranický lake
      The lower part of the abyss and Hranické jezírko are inaccessible to the public

      It is located near the publicly accessible Zbrašov aragonite caves. The total depth of the abyss (at least 473.5 m) is not known, as its lower part is flooded by the Hranický lake. The abyss has an elliptical shape and is situated in the SE-NW direction. Its length at the longest point is approximately 110 meters and width at the widest point about 50 meters. For most visitors, the most interesting information is the depth of the abyss, including the flooded part, but in reality it is a relatively fragmented karst system. Karst phenomena (eg ditches) can be observed even in the immediate vicinity of the abyss. At a depth of 48 meters below the surface of the lake, after overcoming the Zubatice siphon, you can ascend to dry caves (Rotunda suchá, Nebe I-III, Monika). These are continuously monitored, including water and air temperature measurements. In addition, the dry rotunda is known as a nesting place for bats, which penetrate it through a very narrow manhole from the area of ​​Jezírek. They have to overcome about 7 meters of rock massif. The occurrence of bats is monitored and examined by experts from the Institute of Biology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
      Depth
      A pond at the bottom of the abyss

      The depth of the dry part of the abyss is 69.5 m. At the bottom is Jezírko. Below the surface, the abyss was mapped to a depth of -170 m (Pavel Říha, 2005), the dive followed to a depth of -181 m (Starnawski, 2000) and a dive on 21 June 2012 to a depth of -217 m (Starnawski with a six-member team of Czech and Polish divers ). [4] The research was also performed using the Hyball robot and the HBZS Ostrava robot. The robot (R.O.V.) Hyball was at a depth of -205 m (1995). The bottom was not reached, because according to another survey, such a terrain configuration was found that made further progress of the robot impossible.

      The measurement of the depth of the abyss was carried out on October 1, 2012, when Krzysztof Starnawski launched a probe from a depth of 217 meters to a depth of 373 meters during an action by speleopivers from the organization ZO ČSS 7-02 Hranický kras Olomouc. He himself then descended briefly to a depth of 225 meters, which is the greatest depth reached at this location by the diver.

      On October 12, 2014, Krzysztof Starnawski again measured the new maximum depth of the flooded part of the Hranice Abyss - 384 meters. On September 27, 2016, GROV's ROV reached a depth of 404 meters without reaching the bottom. [2] The Hranice abyss thus surpassed the Italian Pozzo del Merro in its depth, until then registered as the deepest flooded abyss in the world with a maximum measured depth of 392 meters. [5]

      The total confirmed depth of the dry and wet part was 473.5 meters (69.5 + 404) by 2020. It is estimated that the gap could reach a depth of between 800 and 1200 m, as evidenced by the temperature and chemical composition of the water in Jezírek. [6] [7] [8] This is confirmed by other research published in the professional press in 2020. [9] [3]

      From a historical point of view, it is interesting that Jiří Pogoda states that on April 13, 1980, during a solo dive, he launched a special construction probe (glider) from Zubatice to a total water depth of 260 meters without reaching the bottom. However, its measurement data are incomplete and are considered unreliable because they have not been further verified. [10] From today's point of view, Pogod's measurements are in line with reality, but due to the opacity of the 205-meter restriction, it would have been a huge coincidence for his probe to drop lower and especially to be pulled back through a tangle of trunks, branches and other terrain obstacles.
      Access

      Access to the Hranická abyss from the building of the railway station in Teplice nad Bečvou on the Hranice na Moravě - Púchov line is via a red tourist sign, identical to the Hůrka nature trail. [11] The abyss, which is surrounded by a fence as protection against falling, is about 500 meters away from the station.
      Reputation

      According to legend, the Great Moravian ruler Mojmír II jumped into the abyss on horseback. (known in history as Mojmír I. [source?]) to do the same in the night darkness of his persecutors from among the treacherous nobles threatening Moravia. [12]

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:02PM (#1050885)

    It's goetze at the bottom. What else.

  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @06:04PM (#1050889)

    n/t

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by krishnoid on Monday September 14 2020, @06:50PM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Monday September 14 2020, @06:50PM (#1050922)

    Whatever you do, make sure you bring a friend along [youtu.be].

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @07:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 14 2020, @07:05PM (#1050936)

    The Shadow knows!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 15 2020, @12:43PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 15 2020, @12:43PM (#1051235)

    corrected subtitle?: The knuckleheads used a ruler that was too short and were too embarrassed to admit to it for years. If I reported measurements that way, there wouldn't be a mountain taller than 25 ft

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