The Atlantic Ocean - Black Hole of Andros
Locations
The Atlantic Ocean
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Introduction
The Atlantic is the second largest ocean on the planet. It is the resting place of the Titanic, home to the mysterious Bermuda Triangle and is the youngest of the Earth's great oceans. It reaches depths of 8,500 metres. Oceans investigates this influential body of water from a group of islands in its western reaches - the Bahamas.
Black Hole of Andros
Overview
The Black Hole found on the island of South Andros is a large isolated column, about 47m deep and formed by chemical erosion. Its depths replicate ocean conditions billions of years ago.
At about 18m there is a 1m dark purple layer of toxic bacteria containing high concentrations of hydrogen sulphide. This toxic layer looks so dark it resembles the hole's floor but is actually a boundary which separates oxygenated water from oxygen-free water below it. This oxygen-free water has similar properties to water found in the oceans 3.5 billion years ago.
| Importance: | The conditions found in the depths of this hole resemble those found in our oceans billions of years ago. |
| Dive category: | This is a low visibility dive with many hazards due to harmful toxic layers of water and low visibility. |
| Access: | This is a site of scientific interest and its conditions are unique because it's so rarely disturbed, for this reason, access is restricted. |
Interesting for
- Mystery of the black hole revealed
- An article by the Blue Holes Foundation about discoveries made on the black hole in South Andros
- Scientific Results from the Black Hole, South Andros
- Expert on the Black hole of South Andros
- Wikipedia's article about Stephanie Schwabe, founder of the Robert Palmer Blue Holes Foundation
- Stephanie Schwabe
- Courageous scientific research
- An article written by Stephanie Schwabe for Diver magazine in 2004
- The floor of fire
BBC related content
- Oceans ultimate dives: Paul Rose's deep dive
- Oceans presenter biography: Paul Rose
- Oceans image gallery: The Atlantic Ocean
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