WEBVTT - How Blue Holes Work 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.280 Heart Radio. Hey you' welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.079 and there's Charles W Chuck Bryan over there. Jerry's hovering 0:00:17.120 --> 0:00:21.760 about and this is Stuff you should Know, another jazzy 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:26.319 Earth Science edition. Chuck. Yeah, and this is like, I 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.720 know we covered this head of an Internet Roundup? Did we? 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:33.280 I don't think we covered. I mean, we've done a 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.440 lot of cave stuff. We did sinkholes, cave dwellers, caving, 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:43.879 cave diving, peleology, and cave diving. So which one like 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.280 it could have come up in cave diving? I think maybe? 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:49.320 But I feel like I remember showing a picture. I'm 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.800 feeling Internet Roundup. Okay, yeah, we've been. That's kind of 0:00:52.800 --> 0:00:54.920 funny because this, then is the second thing we've done 0:00:54.960 --> 0:00:57.600 that we already did on Internet Roundup and then forgot about. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:02.800 That's right, that's a trend. We're trending. Um. But the 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.039 cool thing about this one, Chuck, is that, like these 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.080 things that we're going to talk about today, blue holes 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:14.399 are so um new scientifically speaking, they're so unexplored um 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:16.080 that there's a lot we can get wrong, and no 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.840 one will know for like ten or fifteen years. Perfect. 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:21.559 We'll be done by then, isn't that great? Yeah, yeah, 0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:24.759 we'll be We'll be sipping my ties on the beach 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:29.800 earning by then. Off German bearer bonds. What is that 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.920 trading places? No, that's a die Hard Okay, I think 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:39.399 that was a mash up. Oh yeah, that's funny how 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.280 things just kind of invade your subconscious like that. Well, 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.640 I mean trading places. They definitely were sipping drinks on 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:48.520 the beach, which did not happen in die Hard. No, 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.400 but he says it's like something like that. Yeah. Yeah, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:53.720 he says, by the time the FBI figures out what's 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.400 going on, will be sitting on the beach. I think 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.480 he says sipping my ties earning. Does he say like 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:05.200 in trading places? That's right? Yeah, but he like breaks 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.280 the fourth wall and stairs right at the camera. We 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:11.360 need deliver. That would be great. So um, obviously, as 0:02:11.400 --> 0:02:13.800 everyone's picked up by now, we're talking about blue holes 0:02:13.800 --> 0:02:15.560 and if you don't know what a blue hole is, 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:17.919 I feel like this is definitely one of those ones 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:19.920 where we need to define it rather than just start 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.800 talking about it out of the gate. Uh, define what 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:28.359 it looks like or or the reveal of what it is. Okay, yeah, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.280 we'll define what it looks like first. How about that? 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:34.160 All right, Well, it looks like a blue hole in 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:37.640 the ocean, like, you know, there's ocean, and then all 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:39.840 of a sudden, it's like, wait a minute, there's a 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:44.040 you know, sometimes they're pretty circular, like almost exactly circular, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.080 and sometimes they're oddly shaped, but it's definitely like a 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:50.960 different color. And what it looks like from a bird's 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:53.600 eye view is like, well, hey, that looks like it 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:58.200 might be deeper right there, and it is. Yeah, and 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.320 it's a much much darker shade of blue than the 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.760 surrounding areas because it's a deep, deep hole in the 0:03:04.800 --> 0:03:07.519 sea floor and the stuff around it is usually far 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:11.760 shallower comparatively speaking, so usually the area around is like 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:16.560 a much nicer, kind of lighter blue green, clearish color. 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.840 And then this is like this really stark, dark blue 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:23.040 hole again in the middle of the sea floor, and um, 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.520 it's a they're really popular diving spots. You have to 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.600 be a really good diver, as we'll see, to dive 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.520 on a blue hole, and they're also have long for centuries. Um, 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:36.920 been known locally um as really great fishing spots, both 0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:41.320 commercially and for sport fishing. But the thing is, it's 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.360 like it's starting to become clear to geologists and biologists 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.280 that these things are kind of dotted all over the world. 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.200 There's some out to see, there's some that are actually landlocked, um, 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.640 but that they share some commonalities, and that these things, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.760 these blue holes, submerged holes in the ground or the 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.360 sea floor are some of the weirdest, um most amazing 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:09.240 environments that that are exist on Earth right now. Yeah, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.000 and you know, we should probably say that fishermen everywhere 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:16.240 are probably still mad at Jacques Cousteau who in nineteen 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.479 seventy two put the Great Blue Hole, which is one 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:24.279 particularly striking blue hole off the coast of Belize. He 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.120 put that on the map in nineteen seventy two on 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:28.760 a show that I used to love to watch, The 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:31.640 Undersea World of Jacques Gusta. Did you watch that? No, 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.800 I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zoo though so 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.960 close enough. Yeah, I was. I'm not sure what channel 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:41.840 it came on, or that was in reruns or if 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:44.440 I was watching it live, but it was sort of 0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:47.719 like you know that in Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom were 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.040 the two big nature shows for me growing up as 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.240 far as turning me onto to all this stuff, right 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.520 the uh. I think the show ran from nineteen sixty 0:04:57.560 --> 0:04:59.880 six to seventy six, so it's entirely possible you were 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:04.479 watching it live was a youngster. Probably reruns, yeah, but still, 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.400 I mean, I'm sure it immediately went in to reruns. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.719 It was wildly popular. And that particular episode, if you're interested, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.840 was Secrets of the Sunken Caves. But yeah, he put 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.440 this thing on the map, like, not literally, it was 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.560 on maps already, but he introduced it to the rest 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.600 of the world. UM. And the Great Blue Hole, as 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:24.679 that one in Belize that he covered is called UM 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:29.359 is on basically every serious scuba diver's bucket list to dive. 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.400 It's just it's just one of those places you have 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.279 to dive before you die. Hopefully you don't die while 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:39.120 you're diving on it, but it does happen sometimes it does. Uh. 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.440 And blue holes are basically uh. You know, I mentioned 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.839 sink or episode on sinkholes at the beginning. That was 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:47.960 a bit of an easter egg, because that's really all 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:51.880 they are is underwater sinkholes. It's a feature of what's 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:56.000 known as a karst system k a r st um 0:05:56.040 --> 0:05:59.440 where you have this porous limestone making up the bedrock, 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:02.960 which you know leads to a lot of things. It's porous, 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:06.599 so it uh sentiment it like it wears away and 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.600 the road's kind of easier, I think than other kinds 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.919 of bedrock. That's where if you listen to any of 0:06:11.920 --> 0:06:15.320 the caving episodes, is where you're gonna get some some 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:19.400 of these great stalactites and stalagmites because that acid rain 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.599 drips down and wears away that limestone, and you know, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.720 it forms little icicles from the top and then when 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:29.359 it hits the bottom it forms reverse icicles on the floor. 0:06:30.040 --> 0:06:33.520 And some of these blue holes have these stalactites and 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:36.720 stalagmites because they used to be you know, they used 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:39.520 to be land, right, they used to be dry caves. 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.559 Like that's the thing. Once they found stalactites and slag 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.080 mites um in these blue holes kind of give up 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:48.840 to see they're like, okay, this had to have been 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.200 above dry land because the dripping effect of water coming 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.120 from the top and then dripping down to the bottom. 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:57.480 It's kind of lost in the translation. When the thing 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.600 is already submerged in water, it has to be dry, 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.440 you know what I'm saying. Else not really No, I 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.480 think it just kind of goes every which way rather 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.960 than straight down. So yeah, when they when they started 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.320 finding these um collectively stalactites which come down from the 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.040 ceiling and stalagmites which come up from the floor. They're 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:18.559 collectively called spelio theems which we've talked about in plenty 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.960 of other episodes, when they started finding speleothems in in 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.280 these um blue holes, they're like, these were once on 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.360 dry land, which is pretty cool. But it also makes 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.240 sense too that these are just caves that formed at 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:34.560 some point in the great, great distant past on on 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.240 unearthed UM. I mean, where else are they going to form? 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:41.640 You know? Um? And it also makes sense that as 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.040 a cavern formed through the same process that forms spelio 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.520 theems um. It's just the water kind of carves out 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.880 a hole in the limestone, it dissolves it, and then 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:53.720 it gets bigger and bigger over time, and then all 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.840 of a sudden you have a cavern that the roof 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.920 of that area is not supported like it is surrounding 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.400 and so it's a vent going to clap in, whether 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:03.920 it's on dry land and as a sinkhole, or if 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:06.800 it's on dry land, and then that eventually becomes submerged 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:08.920 by water, you have a blue hole. So it's just 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:11.560 a sinkhole that's now out to see because the sea 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.840 level rise. Basically, Yeah, and one of the cool things 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.239 about the Great Blue Hole is when they started looking 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.960 at these stalactites and stalagmites, are like, well, some of 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:23.720 these look like you would expect because when things dripped, 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:27.160 they dripped straight down or build straight up. But some 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.640 of these are angled, sometimes up to twelve degrees, and 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.640 they're like, that's pretty interesting. So what it probably means 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.400 is that this thing formed over many, many many years 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:42.880 and the Earth's tectonic plates started shifting and so they 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:45.480 started dripping at different angles. So you've got this really 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.360 cool effect that happens where you have these you know, Uh, 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.360 it's something that you wouldn't see normally in a cave. Basically, 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.360 So if a couple of years ago, uh nat g 0:08:55.559 --> 0:09:00.000 O and Richard Branson did an expedition where they were 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.040 are basically tried to map the Great Blue Hole three 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:06.679 D map. It and they went down there, and they 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.000 they went deeper than I think had been before in 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.319 a in a submarine like that, and found a bunch 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:14.679 of stuff. Um. They found that it was filling up 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:17.880 very slowly. I think they likened it to like an 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:22.040 underwater hour glass. Um, it's very slowly, so it's not 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.760 like it's going to be full anytime soon. Uh. They 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:27.680 found a two leader bottle of coke, uh, go pro 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:33.680 camera and some some dead people, some dead humans, a 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.760 lot of dead animals, but some dead humans as well. Yeah. 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.680 So the blue hole um has claimed at least three 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.880 lives that we know of on record right, um, which 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.560 is actually kind of a low ratio compared to some 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.960 other blue holes out there. UM. But they are still 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.240 down there, and like you said, two of them were 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.280 found by Branson and the nat GEO crew and they 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:57.200 came back and told the authorities and Belize exactly where 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:01.240 they were. Um. And they also apparently said, but look, 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:04.880 it's really quiet down there. It's really like a RESTful place, 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.080 like you could do a lot worse for a final 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:10.160 resting place than the bottom of the blue hole in Belize. 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:12.800 And I guess the authorities, I don't know if they 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.760 consulted with the families or what. But I was made 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:17.440 to think by some of the stuff I read that 0:10:17.480 --> 0:10:19.760 the authorities in Belize said, you know, let's just leave 0:10:19.800 --> 0:10:22.040 them down there and that will be their final resting place, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:26.760 which sounds a little morbid from the outside, but that's 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.720 actually kind of customary when it comes to cave diving 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.840 in particular. I think we talked about that a little 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:37.640 bit in Caved the cave Diving episode, Yeah, for sure. Um. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.360 And the cool thing about the Great Blue Hole is 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:45.400 that at one point it was it was in the jungle. Yeah, 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.000 so that would make it a different kind of blue hole, 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.240 which is still technically a blue hole, but it's called 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:55.200 the uh Ankielin I'm pretty sure that's right pool, which 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:57.760 is a blue hole, but it's landlocked, so like the 0:10:57.880 --> 0:11:00.840 rim is exposed to dry air. It's not underwater like 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.439 on the sea floor because the sea levels just aren't 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.240 that high. And one of the interesting things about the 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:10.319 Great Blue Hole in Belize is it was at some 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:15.240 point because sea levels lowered so so dramatically um during 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.640 the last interglacial maximum about twenty six thousand years ago, 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:24.240 that that a significant portion of this vertical cave which 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.600 is now the Great Blue Hole in Belize was dry. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.800 It was just totally dry, Like you could walk around 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:33.560 the top of the rim because it was no longer underwater. 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:36.560 You could jump in. You would die, but you could 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:38.200 jump in, and you would go all the way down 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:41.679 and then maybe at about the bottom, say twenty meters 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:46.240 of the cave, you would finally hit seawater. So over time, 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:50.280 the seawater levels have risen from the last time the 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.760 Earth was in a ice age UM, and the seawaters, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:56.880 the sea levels have risen so much that now the 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.599 cave is totally submerged and is actually um many meters 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:06.960 under the surface of the sea because of sea level rise. Yeah, 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.600 and there's there's some really cool things you can learn from, uh, 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.800 from studying these blue holes, and maybe we should take 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:36.920 a break and learn about those right after this. Alright, 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:38.840 So there's a couple of really cool things that you 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:44.319 can learn by studying blue holes. UM. One of them is, uh, 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.760 you can look at this sediment and you can basically 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.920 kind of get a snapshot of of ancient weather patterns. UM. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.400 I think when they when Branson and the gang went 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:58.160 down to the Great Blue Hole, they found a lot 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:02.640 of sediment where it's sort of indicated that UM in 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.280 different areas that indicated that that perhaps the Mayan Empire 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:10.600 had several severe hurricanes and maybe had something to do 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.640 with them not being around for much longer. Yeah, because 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.760 so the these UM these blue holes are basically at 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:21.960 a certain level cut off from the ocean above them, 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:26.240 like there's a point where there's no currents any longer, 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:30.439 whether the waves can affect it um, where there's no 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.360 oxygen dissolving past a certain boundary that we'll talk about 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.400 in a second, and so beneath a certain depth, they're 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:44.360 just like this, this perfect record of the Earth's geological history, 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.960 frozen and sequestered from everything else. So if you go 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.200 down there and this is the kind of the trend 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:52.000 that they're starting to figure out that these are the 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.920 expeditions are trying to launch and start taking samples of 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:57.840 the sediment, you can get like a really good picture 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.960 of Earth's say like her a cane passed or drought passed. 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.839 Apparently UM when when there's spikes and iron content, they 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.280 take that as UM from dust storms from Africa, which 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.720 which UM says that there's probably severe drought around the 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:15.400 world that year. So there's all of this information you 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.480 can glean that's just trapped and locked in the bottom 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:21.240 of these these great blue holes because they're so deep 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:25.200 and so remote and so unaffected by the world above them. 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:28.360 I just think that's amazing. It's super cool. Uh. The 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.040 other cool thing you can learn about is um sea 0:14:32.120 --> 0:14:35.040 level rise over the years. We don't have the clearest 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.040 picture in science of anciency levels and when they were, 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.880 you know, like exact levels of when there were glacial 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.880 periods and interglacial periods and the rising and falling of 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.280 the seas. But if you go down there and you 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.920 radio carbon date these stalactites and stalagmites, you can compare 0:14:51.960 --> 0:14:54.680 them to the relative depths of the whole cave system, 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.640 and then you can basically say when was their air here, 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.600 when was there water here, and get a pretty, you know, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.240 at least a much better picture of what the sea 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:04.480 levels used to look like. Yeah, and they figured out 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.360 that the cave itself was formed um between about a 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.520 hundred and fifty three thousand years ago to about fifteen 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:16.040 thousand years ago. There are four major dry periods where 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.960 the cave was exposed during that time, and I don't 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:23.000 know if they figured out from the um the Great 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:25.960 Blue Hole itself or if they just already knew this, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.400 But apparently in the past the sea level has risen 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:33.320 really quickly a couple of different times UM. I think 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.320 eleven thousand years ago and eight thousand years ago. Over 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.680 the course of less than a hundred and fifty years, 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:42.640 it rose twenty five ft and then again twenty one 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:45.960 ft in less than less than two centuries, which is 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.080 a really significant rise UM. And having information like that 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:54.360 is really vital to kind of placing our current sea 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.720 level rise and experience of climate change in context in 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.840 this greater context of Earth's history and possibly it's normal 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.320 rhythms or what's abnormal. So to be able to understand 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.680 that because of the kind of the record that's kept 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.600 in the blue holes is extremely helpful. Yeah. And I 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.200 think the usual level of sea rises about a meter 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.760 every century, so a spike of twenty four and twenty 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:24.320 ft is really really big. It's I mean, you could 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.840 basically watch it happening. You know, it's start to come 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:28.920 up around your ankles if you stood in there the 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:33.000 same place long enough. Another cool thing about blue holes, 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.720 and in particularly the Great blue hole is that there 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:41.360 is a layer of hydrogen sulfide that basically acts like 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:44.560 a blanket, uh, And there are different depths depending on 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.240 which blue hole you're talking about, But it's just a 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:51.440 real concentrated layer of hydrogen sulfide. That is, it's a 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:55.640 bike product of decaying plant material, and it's kind of stinky. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:57.640 It's kind of that sulfury eggy smell that you might 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:02.480 smell sometimes, and it's uh, really really clear water below 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:06.520 in this area it is really brown and kind of gross, 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:09.240 and then you know it's it's so far down it 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.280 doesn't look brown and gross from the top. It still 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:14.480 looks nice and blue. But it's really a separation point 0:17:14.480 --> 0:17:17.400 where above it you have life and below it there's 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.520 no oxygen getting through, so you have no life now. 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:25.040 And I saw it described as like kind of hazy brown, 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.480 kind of cobwebby layer. I think in the Great Blue 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:32.919 Hole in particular. It's about thirty ft thick and it 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.440 starts at about the ninety meter mark and do you 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.120 have to you have to go down past it, and 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:43.320 I guess creepy. It is creepy, but it's also apparently 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:47.440 like even though you have a rebreather on or scuba apparatus. 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:50.520 It still steeps in through your skin while you're swimming 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.840 through it, and people will like throw up and UM 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.680 get itchy, kind of breakout and hives start to get 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.000 nauseated and headaches because it starts it creeps in through 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:03.120 your skin in just that short time. UM. So it's 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:07.480 really gross. It's really really toxic in this concentrated form. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:12.119 It's like basically UM concentrated gas forms suspended in a 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.920 blanket layer and UM oxygen can't get past it. So 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:21.520 there it's an anaerobic environment in that lower layer UM, 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:24.399 which means it should be totally dead and lifeless. But 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.600 one of the things that they're finding out about blue 0:18:26.600 --> 0:18:31.639 holes is that even in this anaerobic, toxic layer UM, 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:35.920 there is archaea, another type of life that's not quite 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:41.920 bacteria UM and definitely not you carryotes um or Procariot's. 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.480 I can never remember which one we are UM. But 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.400 they lived down there, their extreme aphiles is what they're 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.000 usually called these these days, And there's a whole kind 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:55.440 of teeming colony of life down there that actually takes 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.000 all of this stuff that accidentally falls into the blue 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:01.880 holes and digests them and turns them into this bioavailable 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:05.040 nutriatment ranch sediment that's just kind of trapped down at 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.720 the bottom of the Blue Hole. Yeah, and in the 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:09.640 Great Blue Hole when they went down there, they saw 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.160 I think they described it as a I say conk 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:16.320 They were saying conch. I'm not sure which is correct, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.000 but I've always said conk um, but like a conk 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.280 graveyard down there, basically where it's just littered with all 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:26.520 these poor little sea creatures that happened to fall below 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.840 that that layer and they can't get back out, and 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.439 it's like Silence of the Lamb's esque. There's even like 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:34.840 scratch marks where you can tell they've tried to get 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.680 out over the years and we're unable to. Yeah, conk 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:40.359 fingernails that have peeled off and are stuck on the 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:42.840 sides of the walls. It's it's a bad jam. What 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:44.840 do you think about that Claires show? Is it going 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.960 to be any good? I like the concept, Yeah, I 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:51.760 mean too, but of a direct sequel, But I don't know. 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:56.840 I saw that they um, they seem to be recreating 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.240 the Lamb thing, and I think one of the I 0:19:59.240 --> 0:20:02.000 just saw this movie like a week ago and it's 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:04.879 still just so good. Um. I think one of the 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:08.719 strengths of is that they don't show any of that story. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.480 It's all just Clarice and her her telling of the 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:14.960 story makes it so much creep here. Yeah, there's no 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:19.040 like flashback scene or anything. Right, So this TV show 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.440 did that, and I'm wondering if that says a lot 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:26.560 about it or not. I'm wondering who is playing Buffalo Bill, 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.400 because they recreate some of that stuff. It looks like 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.800 my friend, it's our old pal, Tommy Chong, the note holder. 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:37.120 He got himself a pretty sweet gig he's playing him. No, 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.320 I'm just it's like, man, I mean they should just 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:44.640 get that that guy. He's around and still creepy looking. Yeah. Yeah, 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.520 Jamee Gum, the guy who played Jamee Gum. Yeah, sure, 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:52.280 uh yeah, why not? Uh so where are we here? 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:55.639 We were talking about little crabs and things trying to 0:20:55.680 --> 0:21:00.399 get up unsuccessfully, which really is super sad. Yeah. So 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.520 there's a whole con Conch graveyard done. Who is saying 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:07.600 conch where they British? M hmmm, I don't remember because 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:09.880 I've always heard conk too. So yeah, there's a whole 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:12.159 conk and hermit crab graveyard down at the bottom of 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.000 the blue hole UM. And it is sad, but it's 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.560 just kind of like the circle of life thing. But again, 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:21.239 the weird thing about these blue holes is that some 0:21:21.320 --> 0:21:23.680 of them are not circles. It's all just a one 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.960 way deposit of stuff from the top down to the bottom, 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.520 and everything just kind of gets stuck there and again 0:21:29.600 --> 0:21:34.080 forms this pretty cool record isolated in time. UM. That's 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.480 not entirely true of all blue holes. It is for 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:40.080 the Great Blue Hole UM, and plenty of other blue 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:42.320 holes where it's just like things go in they don't 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.000 come back out. But there are other blue holes out there, UM, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.760 including one called Green Banana Blue Hole UM in the 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.119 Gulf of Mexico I think off the coast of Sarasota. 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.879 That is UM pretty deep. It's like, uh, four hundred 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.440 and fifty feet I think for her in thirty five 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.399 ft below the surfaces the bottom of it UM and 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.240 it starts a hundred and fifty four ft below the surface, 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:12.879 and it's some incredibly vibrant, alive oasis in the midst 0:22:12.960 --> 0:22:17.479 of this relatively barren Gulf of Mexico desert. UH. And 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.879 they are trying to figure out what the heck is 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:25.760 going on because other blue holes ares just like life suckers, 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:28.400 and this blue hole is like, have some more life. 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:30.399 You get some life, You get some life, and you 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.840 get some life. You know. It's a pretty interesting conundrum. 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:38.080 Does the green banana have that layer? Yes, although so 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.240 I'm sorry it doesn't have the layer, but it has 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:45.040 plenty of hydrogen sulfide in it. There's some, there's some, yeah, 0:22:45.119 --> 0:22:47.000 And they're trying to figure out why. Because there's another 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:51.359 hole it's similar called Amberjack Hole that they've explored, and 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.320 it definitely has a layer, but there's also some sort 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:57.679 of nutrient flux or exchange with Amberjack too, But in 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:00.800 the green Banana, there's like it's like a two way 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.399