Bottom time question

[awd-turbo]

ok i am not a cave diver. but i have been reading stories and all on cave diving, and they talk about coming into chambers (pockets of air) in caves and them relaxing and setting up to explore more, deeper into te cave. now if they stop 100ft deep in a air pocket, doesnt the time i spend in that pocket count for their bottom time?

 

[LiteHedded]

i suppose it would depend if it was compressed air or not

 

[ukslim]

If it's 100ft deep, it must surely be compressed air - otherwise water would displace it.

Two possibilities:

It might be a largely horizontal cave system - the pocket is not at very great depth at all.

It could be saturation diving. You can stay at pressure for very long periods indeed, if you're prepared to return to normal pressure very slowly.

 

[BeckyKagan]

What your reading about is Sump diving. Its really more Dry cavers. They carry scuba equip with them through the dry caves then when they reach a portion that is submerged they use the dive gear to get to the next dry cave portion, they set up a base came ect. Its not underwater and the only time they are racking up is the time the cave submerges and they have to go down to get to the next portion of dry cave. =)

In caves with depths of 100ft like your talking about, you wont see any air pockets, and if you do they are there because of the divers exhaust bubbles getting stuck there over time....we dont breathe that, but if you did come up into one then yes its bottom time.

Hope that helps!

Becky

 

[DA Aquamaster]

In most cases cave ceilings are porous, at least to the degree that they let water in and air out. If it were perfectly sealed however, it would be just like a capillary depth gauge where the water compresses the air pocket to a pressure equal to that depth.

 

[awd-turbo]

no i am talking about the junee cave in australia or something like that!

 

[Meng_Tze]

...we dont breathe that, but if you did come up into one then yes its bottom time.

And if you would breathe that, the exotic gas loading could cause you to have an eternal bottom time...:blinking:

 

[Cave Bum]

ok i am not a cave diver. but i have been reading stories and all on cave diving, and they talk about coming into chambers (pockets of air) in caves and them relaxing and setting up to explore more, deeper into te cave. now if they stop 100ft deep in a air pocket, doesnt the time i spend in that pocket count for their bottom time?

In caves with depths of 100ft like your talking about, you wont see any air pockets, and if you do they are there because of the divers exhaust bubbles getting stuck there over time....we dont breathe that, but if you did come up into one then yes its bottom time.

What the articles on exploring caves are talking about is a cave that dips down below current ground water level then rises again above that. Additionally, you find in some of the articles about these explorations where the explorers waited until times of drought where the ground water level has dropped to make longer pushes into the system.

Hope that helps clairify.

Bruce

 

[Rhone Man]

If you did find a pocket of compressed air at depth to breathe from, I bet it improves your SAC rate... (assuming it doesn't kill you).

In the Wreck of the Rhone in the BVI, so many divers have gone through the main swim through over the years that there are some decent sized air pockets at the top. If you feel brave enough about scratching your face you can take a breath - the air is obviously slightly CO2 enriched, but not enough to be dangerous for one or two breaths. Make sure you keep your second stage in your hand though, because I don't want to have to pull your body out.