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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

A team of explorers say they have discovered the world's deepest underwater cave, 404 meters (1,325 feet) down [phys.org], near the eastern Czech town of Hranice.

Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski told The Associated Press Friday he felt like a "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery.

Starnawski, 48, found the cave Tuesday in the flooded limestone Hranice Abyss, which he has explored since 1998. He scuba dived to a narrow slot at 200 meters' depth and let through a remotely-operated underwater robot, or ROV, that went to the depth of 404 meters.

In 2015, Starnawski himself passed through the slot and went to 265 meters' depth, realizing that was still far from the bottom and that the cavity was widening.

Speaking on the phone from his home in Krakow, southern Poland, he said that the discovery Tuesday makes Hranice Abyss the world's deepest known underwater cave, beating the previous record-holder, Italy's Pozzo del Merro flooded sinkhole, by 12 meters (39 feet.)

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