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The Great Blue Hole - Belize
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The Great Blue Hole of Belize

The Great Blue Hole of Belize is the ultimate diving experience.  The dive into the Great Blue Hole is an unmatched lifetime adventure that divers never forget.  Refracted light shimmers like Egyptian fans as you descend.  In the awesome silence, you will feel you have journeyed into a prehistoric place in time.  

The Great Blue Hole, a circular limestone sinkhole, more than 300 feet across and over 400 feet deep is Lighthouse Reef Atoll's most famous feature among Scuba divers.  Great depth gives the deep blue color that causes such structures to be known as "blue holes."  Coral surrounds the hole, except for two narrow channels, and actually breaks the surface in many areas at low tide.  

An absolute must-dive for any serious diver!
     

Formation:

The Great Blue Hole was the result of repeated collapses of a cave system formed when the sea level was much lower.  The Great Blue Hole contains geological structures that could only form in air, when caverns are dry and above sea level.  Such collapsed caverns are later filled with water.  
  

Jacques Cousteau:

The Great Blue Hole was thoroughly explored by Jacques Cousteau with his mini-subs in the late 1960's, and was the subject of a television documentary. Cousteau did, with some difficulty, bring the Calypso into the Blue Hole.  He sounded its depths and recovered one of the fallen stalactites at the bottom of the hole.  

Captain Jacques Cousteau called it "...one of the four 'Must-Dive' locations on this blue planet."
    

Notes To Divers:

• There are no whirlpool-like currents in the Blue Hole. Water doesn't circulate freely in the Blue Hole, so there is very little marine life below the shallow depths.
    
• In the deeper waters of the Blue Hole, one might see sharks, but these are scarce. Caves at the 150 foot level are filled with huge stalactites and stalagmites - some of them 30-40' long and 5-10' in diameter, truly geologic wonders!
    
• At depths below 115 to 120 feet deep, it becomes apparent that thousands of years ago, this was a land cave.  Some Stalactites are bent 12 degrees, indicating that the area was tilted during their formation.  
    
• The temperature at a depth of 130 feet is about 76 degrees F, the year round.  
  

More information about diving at Lighthouse Reef.

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04/08/2009