deepest US cave...?

[phreaticus]

What is the "official" (recognized) deepest natural underwater cave (not a quarry or reservoir with a spring popped into, or flooded to make it deeper, i.e. Cannonball in Missouri, etc) in the US? How deep?

My understanding it was DiePolder 2...... approx. 360ffw or so...?
If that is the case, it was bested this past week......documented by at least three separate digital depth recording devises.

[mfascuba]

Would that be Weekie Wachie??

[OutlawCaver]

Red Snapper Sink at 482fsw off Cresent Beach FLA and Green Bananna Sink at 430fsw off Sarasota are the deepest I know of. Guess it depends upon your definition of a cave since both are submerged sinks. I understand there is flow at the bottom of Red Snapper indicating there is possibly some degree of connection to the aquifer.

[phreaticus]

I'm not sure that I'd call the two offshore sinks a "cave".....just a big overhang, but that may be splitting hairs. Megadome, out off Ft. Myers, however, is DEFINITELY a cave dive...and I think it's only been pushed to the high 300's or so...but no bottom yet...?
Then again.....non of the offshore sinks are in the US (offshore, territorial waters...?). Again, hair splitting, but interesting debate?

[Guy Bryant]

The deepest U/W US cave I know of is in Nevada. During the 90's Sheck Exley, Paul Deloach, myself and others were involved with exploring Devil's Hole and Devil's Hole II. In Devil's Hole II Sheck & Paul were diving deep and Sheck was tying off the line at 436ft when he dropped the reel and went plunging after it. He quickly retreived the reel and tied it off at 436ft. He estimated that he could see at least down to 500ft where the cave appeared to go under a duckunder or ledge. Check out this site for more information.

http://hegel.lewiscenter.org/users/mhuffine/subprojects/Student%20Led%20Research/pupworld/pdf/riggsdeacon.pdf

Guy

[phreaticus]

Now THAT is good info......never heard of that one, Guy! Knew of the cave, just didn't know it had been seen (by divers) that deep!
BTW...in case it's not obvious by now...it is Weeki Wachi, at 401 ft, 4000ft. penetration (or so). Cave is still going bigtime....

[phreaticus]

...after thinking about it, Guy, I remember having dinner with Paul at a Tallahassee restaurant in the mid 90's, he was with a cave diver from overseas and talked about being out there...just didn't remember the details (imagine that!)...lol!

[HappyHacker]

Goodenough Springs is well over 500 FFW

[phreaticus]

Goodenough is flooded under 150 ft. of reservoir, I believe.
Perhaps I should have asked which "spring in its natural state"....but again, this is hair-splitting. Sheck Exley used to be ingenious at "inventing" subcategories for record dives.....longest, deepest, coldest, scariest, most expensive per dive....etc, etc....lol!

[Webmaster]

Incidentally the deepest cave in the US (although it's not underwater) is Kazamura Cave in HI at 3614 ft deep according to Bob Gulden's list here:

http://www.caverbob.com/usadeep.htm

Maybe someone should ask him about adding a deep underwater cave list for the US and world.

Also the deepest in the world now for those that might not keep up with such things is Krubera Cave in the Caucasus Mtns. of Georgia at 7119 ft deep (that's over 2 km). Although it is not an underwater cave, there are a number of sumps.

Marbry

Krubera Cave in the Caucasus Mtns. of Georgia

Of course, that would be Georgia, the former Soviet republic, not Georgia, the state.

:D

[DeepSea]

Goodenough Springs is well over 500 FFW

How deep have divers pushed it?

[Pirate]

Goodenough Springs is well over 500 FFW

How deep have divers pushed it?

The end of the line is currently at 400' and the cave continues down at a 45 degree slope with no end in sight. We estimate based on test wells in the area that the cave continues to at least between 700' and 1000' deep. The cave water is warm (84 degrees) so it is being heated by a deep heat source. If all goes well, we have plans to push it to 500' this year.

[JE]

My turn-!

If you have not been down it, you won't know-! It takes 16 hours{round trip} plus to do it, & then it ends under the flanks of St. Helens in a shallow underground lake about a qtr of a mile across and about a foot deep, with zillions of anthropods swimming around in it-!
Chew on this guys & goils- 8)

Yak

[Mike Edmonston]

The deepest U/W US cave I know of is in Nevada. During the 90's Sheck Exley, Paul Deloach, myself and others were involved with exploring Devil's Hole and Devil's Hole II. In Devil's Hole II Sheck & Paul were diving deep and Sheck was tying off the line at 436ft when he dropped the reel and went plunging after it. He quickly retreived the reel and tied it off at 436ft. He estimated that he could see at least down to 500ft where the cave appeared to go under a duckunder or ledge. Check out this site for more information.

http://hegel.lewiscenter.org/users/mhuffine/subprojects/Student%20Led%20Research/pupworld/pdf/riggsdeacon.pdf

Guy

Funny you mention Devil's,

I shot some Devil's hole footage for Discovery channel / Travel channel recently. The site was off limits to anyone other than the scientists and volunteers who monitor the fish population. There's a rumor that a diver from the 70's era, is still down there somewhere. They said the body was never recovered. The show should air on Travel channel in the next few months, as it just finished Post production. I'll post the air times when I get it.

[Guy Bryant]

Mike Edmonston Wrote:


Funny you mention Devil's,

I shot some Devil's hole footage for Discovery channel / Travel channel recently. The site was off limits to anyone other than the scientists and volunteers who monitor the fish population. There's a rumor that a diver from the 70's era, is still down there somewhere. They said the body was never recovered. The show should air on Travel channel in the next few months, as it just finished Post production. I'll post the air times when I get it.

Please do post the dates. I would be quite interested in seeing the footage you shot. It is a really pretty WHITE cave. Did you shoot in both Devil's Hole and Devil's Hole II or just Devil's Hole? Devil's Hole II has no pup fish (no sun light) as you have to drop a 70 foot pit then do some dry caving through a restriction and some more rope work to get back to the water level.

Guy Bryant

[Mike Edmonston]

Mike Edmonston Wrote:


Funny you mention Devil's,

I shot some Devil's hole footage for Discovery channel / Travel channel recently. The site was off limits to anyone other than the scientists and volunteers who monitor the fish population. There's a rumor that a diver from the 70's era, is still down there somewhere. They said the body was never recovered. The show should air on Travel channel in the next few months, as it just finished Post production. I'll post the air times when I get it.

Please do post the dates. I would be quite interested in seeing the footage you shot. It is a really pretty WHITE cave. Did you shoot in both Devil's Hole and Devil's Hole II or just Devil's Hole? Devil's Hole II has no pup fish (no sun light) as you have to drop a 70 foot pit then do some dry caving through a restriction and some more rope work to get back to the water level.

Guy Bryant

Well, I would like to see that passage too :roll:

Unfortunately, we could only shoot exterior and establishing shots. They wouldn't allow us in the cave. :( Therefore the "interior" footage I had to shoot in other cave systems, including the bahamas. We tried to get permission, but with the dwindling fish population, it was just too risky as we couldn't harm even 1 of the little guys. Those little buggers are on the brink of extinction. Somewhat sad. I'll post details and air dates as I get them.