Manatee Spring

[DogDiver]

Did the traverse from Friedman to Catfish today. Wow. Freidman was a mud hole. Thankfully there was a line attached to a tree or we might not have found the chimney. The cave has a very high flow with a tremendous amount of large particulate. Looked like driving in a snowstorm with your bright lights on. Visibility maybe 35 feet. You couldn?t see both sides of the walls. Copious amounts of algae covering the line and everything. Catfish was worse. 2 inches of muck on the lower stairs.


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[patpicos]

thank the sewer tunnel for that (and a little bit of the one after)

[ARY]

Is sewer tunnel taking water from an old quarry?

[CaveSloth]

What causes this?

[rddvet]

What causes this?

I don’t know the answer but I know it’s heavily influenced by tides and water level in the nearby gulf. We’ve had some funky weather lately.

[patpicos]

most people will skip the sewer tunnel due to its high flow and high particulate. For me, its highly interesting. Curiousness about what is in the water source in that area that causes the orange goop that clings to walls and the line.

id love to go back in ideal conditions (high flood waters) and check the nooks and cranies. There are some nasty orange fluff in the side tunnels.

[jason]

Orange is almost always iron.

[phreaticus53]

Actually, the "orange fluffy goop" is most likely Thiothrix bacteria, which feeds on iron.
At least thats my understanding.

[jason]

Actually, the "orange fluffy goop" is most likely Thiothrix bacteria, which feeds on iron.
At least thats my understanding.

Which are orange because of iron oxides.