Recently the Carbon more than 8,000 years old has been found inside the world’s deepest blue hole — the Yongle Blue Hole (YBH)
What are Blue holes?
- They are marine caverns filled with water and are formed following dissolution of carbonate rocks, usually under the influence of global sea level rise or fall.
- They are generally circular, steep-walled and open to the surface.
About Young Blue Hole
- It has a depth of 300 metres, far deeper than the previously recorded deepest blue hole, Dean’s Blue Hole in Bahamas, which had a depth of 202 metres.
- The difference between Blue holes caverns and other aquatic caverns is that they are isolated from the ocean and don’t receive fresh rainwater.
- YBH is influenced with some oceanic exchange in the surface water.
- However, like most blue holes, it is anoxic e. depleted of dissolved oxygen below a certain depth. This anaerobic environment is unfavorable for most sea life.
What researchers have found in YBH?
- The researchers found low levels of dissolved organic carbon and high levels of dissolved inorganic carbon in YBH, both with radiocarbon ages of more than 6,000 years.
- Such concentrations of carbon, usually found in deep marine holes like YBH, provide a natural laboratory to study carbon cycling and potential mechanisms controlling it in the marine ecosystem.
Location of the Blue hole
- Yongle Blue Hole (YBH) was recently discovered in the South China Sea
