Divers find world?s longest underground river
Published: Monday, 5 March, 2007, 09:34 AM Doha Time
MEXICO CITY:
Two scuba divers in the Yucatan peninsula have discovered what is the world?s longest
underground river known so far, Mexican daily newspaper La Jornada reported on Saturday.
The discovery occurred in January near the Tulum archaeological zone, south of Cancun, when the German and English divers Robbie Schmittner and Steve Boagarts managed to connect two rivers previously thought to be independent. The total extension measured 153.6km with a maximum depth of 72m.
Sam Meacham, director of the
Aquifer System Research Centre, told La Jornada that
the discovery culminated three years of research, and has been name the Sac Actun system, after the Mayan name for the larger of the two branches.
Meacham said the aquifer ranked ninth on the list of the world?s longest known underground caves ? included dry and occasionally flooded ones ? and qualified as the longest subterranean river discovered to date.
He said
the two next-longest aquifers are in the same Mexican state of Quintana Roo, with extensions of
146.7km and 57km respectively.
The river?s source is near the Tulum-Coba highway some 130km south of Cancun, and its mouth is on the coast of the Mayan Riviera. The system contains 111 cenotes, or water-filled limestone sinkholes.
Meacham said the Yucatan peninsula has as many as 8,000 cenotes, 600 of which are on the Riviera Maya, a principal tourism area.
Scuba divingin the subterranean sinkholes is a growing sport.
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