Maybe your definition of blue hole is different than mine. :smt102Quote:
Originally Posted by caver
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Maybe your definition of blue hole is different than mine. :smt102Quote:
Originally Posted by caver
You may want to keep things like this quiet until you have actually accomplished something. Otherwise, gossip starts, people argue over things they know nothing about, and before you know it the state wants you to pay for some kind of permit to access their water !! :roll:Quote:
Originally Posted by caver
More to come later ..
What? THAT would never happen HERE!Quote:
Originally Posted by guru caver
Booo Hoooo
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the real question is, does it go?
my last dive in Ohio was 4 years ago at Gilboa. I got smart and moved to Florida. Good luck. My new criteria for diving is temp in ferenheit plus the vis in feet has to be greater than 150 or I don't dive. LOL ken
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I have been involved recently in a project to explore the blue holes of northern Ohio. There are in fact MANY "blue holes", mostly in the Castalia area just south of lake Erie. The famous Castalia Blue Hole is there as well that was explored by Cousteau in the 1960's. A group of central Ohio cave divers did a project there in 1990's and found a shallow bottom that is not really solid and that actually plumbed much deeper than swimable. Recently a small group of Columbus, Ohio cave divers that includes myself did a new exploration project that was directed by an amateur scientist and the owner of Crystal Rock Cave. Crystal rock is in fact in the basement of an ASTOUNDING house. I have been in the house and in the cave, but have not actually dived the cave as of yet. The cave is accessible from an outside courtyard and through the basement of the house down three different levels of stairs and several doors. The house is geothermally heated from the cave. The underwater cave is tiny and sidemount and no-mount. The dry portion is a former show cave with colored lighting and concrete walkway that makes a small traverse between inside an outside entarnces. This place is cool! The cave has been completely explored, lined and mapped. The day I was there for the blue hole project we toured MANY different "blue holes". They varied from small water vents welling out of rock outcroppings and the forest floor to man-made wells that from the flow of water coming out of them have transformed themselves into blue holes. One that we saw had a geyser of water shooting 3-4 feet off the surface of the headpool out of the well. That's a lot of water! Other blue holes that we saw were large placid pools of blue water hidden in the forest of which we would have not had a snowball's chance in hell of finding without the local guide we had. We did dive the largest of these that day. The water although blue on top, quickly below 3 feet of depth turned black and had a foul, stomach-turning smell of hydrogen sulfide. There was NO VIS below three feet. A 10 watt HID disappeared 4 inched in front of your mask. We found the same type of semi-solid bottom others had found in the Castalia Blue Hole. It ate a plumb line, but you could not swim through it. Max depth found was 38 feet with plumb estimated at 50 or so. We spent 2 1/2 hours in the 48 degree water. Needless to say, that is why I did not dive Chrystal Rock that night. There are a couple of other springs in northern Ohio that are more reminiscent of Florida caves though. We are currently making plans on these. There is also Seneca Caverns in northern Ohio which is clearly diveable, but the owner refuses to give permission to go in the water at the bottom of the showcave. There is very clearly though a large amount of flow in sump at the bottom of the cave. Cave divers from columbus have also explored a cave on one of the tourist islands on Lake Erie. I don't recognize the blue hole in the pictures above, but it lokks more like a quarry than any of the blue holes I have seen in northern Ohio. Most of the blue holes were very much round sinkholes with blue water, but almost no vis even from the surface. In the pictures above the water looks more like quarry water. These old pits are also frequently used for dumping unfortunately. I would like to see this particular blue hole. Most of the sites were disappointing for diving possibilities, but we did do a bunch of water sampling while there which went to a couple local universities for testing. Also of note, the following day after I drove home my friends went out on a boat and dove several blue holes actually located under the bay in Lake Erie. This day they were accompanied on the boat by a scientist and two reporters and they made the front page of the local newspaper for their explorations. They again found underwater sinkholes full of black, foul water and a bottom that ate plumb lines (and kept one). Although we have not found any going passage other than Crystal Rock, I'm convinced that there has to be something else out there. I'll see if I can figure out how to find the other article about the springs under the bay.
Ryan Parkevich