Scientists to Explore a Deep Blue Hole Off Florida – Newser

(Newser)
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Scientists are on the hunt for undiscovered phenomenon within a 425-foot-deep “blue hole” off the Florida depart. Shrimp is necessary about such holes, which are an linked to sink holes on land and are “scattered all over Florida’s Gulf continental shelf” but very tough to entry, according to the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. What’s necessary is that they are extremely various biologically, containing species from corals to sharks. A 2019 search of a 350-foot-deep blue hole is named “Amberjack Hole,” some 30 miles off Sarasota, found an “oasis in an in any other case barren seafloor,” together with two unimaginative smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, the NOAA says. Now scientists will detect this deeper blue hole, which sits 155 toes beneath the outside of Florida’s Gulf Flit, over the course of a one year, experiences ABC News.

The expedition at the blue hole dubbed “Green Banana” kicks off in August and entails scientists from Mote Marine Laboratory, Florida Atlantic University, Georgia Institute of Know-how and the US Geological Society. To boot to shopping for various existence kinds, scientists are drawn to learning whether the outlet is connected to Florida’s groundwater. “The seawater chemistry within the holes is spicy and seems to work alongside with groundwater,” the NOAA says. Divers will descend to the mouth and preserve samples using a “benthic lander”—a 600-pound, three-legged structure to which scientific instruments are mounted, per Current Mechanics. The NOAA says the outlet’s hourglass shape will pose a predicament to sampling. (The deepest known blue hole can also nearly swallow the Eiffel Tower.)