Into the Abyss.... Man and Robot teamed up to discover the world's deepest underwater cave in Czech Republic

Explorers in the Czech Republic have just
completed an expedition to the underwater cave Hranická Propast - also known as the Hranice Abyss - verifying for the first time since its discovery in 1999 that it really is the deepest underwater cave on Earth.


The team, led by Polish diver Krzysztof
Starnawski, managed to reach a depth of 404
metres (1,325 feet) using a remotely operated
vehicle (ROV), which means this limestone cavern is 12 metres (39 feet) deeper than the second deepest underwater cave that we know of - Italy’s Pozzo del Merro.

Video from the ROV showed Ancient trees captured along the sloping ridges of the Hranice Abyss(photo: Krzystof Starnawski/Facebook)

The most recent expedition, which was sponsored in part by National Geographic, is the result of over two years of diving. Back in 2014,
Starnawski thought he had reached the bottom
of the cave at a depth of 200 metres (656 feet).
As Kat Long reports for National Geographic, with further investigation, Starnawski found an
extremely narrow 'squeeze passage' that gave
way to a gigantic, pitch black, vertical tunnel,
which he tried to explore with a probe, but ran
out of line at a depth of 384 metres (1,260 feet).

In 2015, Starnawski conducted another dive in
the cave, revealing that the passage he managed to stick a probe through last time had widened, which allowed him to actually swim through.

While inside this black abyss, he managed to
reach a depth of 265 metres (869 feet) where he unleashed another probe, finally managing to
reach somthing solid at a total depth of 370
metres (1,214 feet) - possibly landing on top of
fallen debris.


According to Long, during the most recent
expedition last week, the team managed to use
an ROV to fully explore the cave, verifying that it
is, in fact, the deepest known cave in the world,
at a depth of 404 metres (1,325 feet).


"As the expedition leader for the last several
years, I've prepared the equipment and the route in and out for the ROV’s dive, so the ROV could go beyond the limits of a human diver, and get through the restricted passage and between the fallen logs and trees," Starnawski told National Geographic.


[img]http://www.livescience.com/images/i/000/086/490/original/deepest-underwater-cave-marcin-jamkowski.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=inside660[/img]

Polish Diver, Krzystof Starnawski, began diving in the Hranicka Propast (Hranice Abyss), now determined to be the deepest underwater cave in the world, 20 years ago. Credit: Photograph by Marcin Jamkowski/National Geographic

For this expedition, he dived down to 200 metres (656 feet) to affix a guideline for the ROV to follow. His team deployed the ROV, and he
accompanied it down to 60 metres (197 feet).


"From there, the team at the surface navigated it, via fibre-optic cable, down along my new line to 200 metres deep. Then it went down to explore the uncharted territory - to the record-breaking depth of 404 metres," he told National
Geographic.


"The ROV that reached 404 metres has a depth
gauge that was tested and certified by our state
commission, so we are 100 percent sure the
measurements were accurate."


While the team is sure that the cave is the
deepest known in the world, there are still many
things to learn about it. It's thought that the
limestone cavern was created by bubbling hot
mineral water filled with carbon dioxide that
slowly formed a tunnel over time, but further
research is needed to fully understand its
formation.


"This cave is very unique because it’s like a
volcano, formed from hot mineral water bubbling from the bottom up, rather than rain coming from the top down like most caves," Starnawski explained to Mark M. Synnot at National Geographic last year.



"There are probably only three caves like this in
the world. There is nothing typical about this
cave, and every dive we make new discoveries."

A newly updated depth chart of the Hranice Abyss based on the most recent Record-breaking dive on September 27(Photos: Krzystof Starnawski/Facebook)

Sources: http://www.sciencealert.com/explorers-have-found-the-deepest-underwater-cave

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/worlds-deepest-underwater-cave-still-has-no-bottom

Cc: Lalasticlala, Dominique..... How about letting people know about this discovery? The underwater cave's "actual" bottom hasn't been found out yet.... It's still "bottomless"

In this photo taken Sept. 27, 2016 in the flooded Hranicka Propast, or Hranice Abyss, in the Czech Republic Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, left, and Bartlomiej Grynda, right, are reading images from a remotely-operated underwater robot, or ROV, that went to the record depth of 404 meters ,(1,325 feet), revealing the limestone abyss to be
the world's deepest flooded cave, during the
'Hranicka Propast - step beyond 400m' expedition led by Starnawski and partly funded by the National Geographic. (AP Photo/ Marcin
Jamkowski)

PHOTO: The Hranicka Propast or Hranice Abyss in the Czech Republic is now the deepest
underwater cave in the world.
AP: KRZYSZTOF STARNAWSKI EXPEDITION

Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, told The Associated Press on Friday that he felt like a "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery near the Czech town of Hranice.

Starnawski, 48, determined Tuesday that the
flooded limestone Hranicka Propast, or Hranice
Abyss, which divers, including him, have explored for decades in its upper parts, was at least 404 meters deep. He scuba dived to a narrow slot in the rock formation at 200 meters down, then sent a remotely operated underwater robot, or ROV, that went to the depth of 404 meters, or the length of its cord, but still did not hit the bottom.

This represents a graphic of how corruption has sank deep into the Nigerian system of Governance.. 407 kilometres deep.

Some of the world's other deep dives:

- Pozzo del Merro in Italy (392 metres)

- Zacaton in Mexico (339 metres)

- Vrelo Cave in Macedonia (330 metres)

- Boesmansgat in South Africa (270 metres)

- Dean's Blue Hole in the Bahamas (202 metres)

The Hranice "Abyss" (Aka. Hranicka Propast) has been surveyed numerous times by Polish
explorer Krzysztof Starnawski over the last 20
years, but Mr Starnawski had never, until now,
been able to measure beyond a depth of 370
metres (1,214).

PHOTO A diagram showing a cross-section of the the Hranicka Propast.
FACEBOOK: KRZYSZTOF STARNAWSKI

I would love to tour d world oneday... Visit places and swim in oceans and seas and lakes of d world

Fascinating!!!
The Columbus of our Time.

wow impressive and fascinating

Hmmm...interesting. Wonder what lives down there....and the temperature.