mccabejc
Contributor
Saw a show last night on cave exploration, and part of it involved a team of researchers diving a cave somewhere. At one point they come to an opening that is so tight they need to remove their side-mounted tanks, feed them through first, then wiggle thru the opening. All the while kicking up lots of silt.
Saw another PBS show a while back where a pair of divers, carrying some homemade radio beacons, exploring some underwater springs in Florida, apparently for the first time. They did the same thing, wiggling through incredibly tight openings. As I recall they were at some insane depth (200 ft. or something like that?), and didn't know where or if the spring had an outlet, or they'd have to turn around and come back to where they started. On the surface there were a couple of guys with radio receivers tracking them as they travelled through the underground springs, and it led them thru a restaurant, across a highway, etc.
This raises a lot of questions in my mind, such as:
1. Are you kiddin' me ???!!!
2. Why even consider trying to squeeze thru an opening that small?
3. When you are diving an spring at a depth of 200ft. underground, it's not the same as having a 200 ft. column of water above you, right (in terms of nitrogen ongassing)? If you're in a 6 ft. diameter cavern, it's equivalent to diving in 6ft. of open water, right?
4. If #3 is true, then I'm reasoning that maybe you can stay under forever without worrying about DCI, and are just limited by air supply. Which is why they lug around 3 or 4 tanks with them.
Can somebody explain the logistics of cave diving? Thanks.
Saw another PBS show a while back where a pair of divers, carrying some homemade radio beacons, exploring some underwater springs in Florida, apparently for the first time. They did the same thing, wiggling through incredibly tight openings. As I recall they were at some insane depth (200 ft. or something like that?), and didn't know where or if the spring had an outlet, or they'd have to turn around and come back to where they started. On the surface there were a couple of guys with radio receivers tracking them as they travelled through the underground springs, and it led them thru a restaurant, across a highway, etc.
This raises a lot of questions in my mind, such as:
1. Are you kiddin' me ???!!!
2. Why even consider trying to squeeze thru an opening that small?
3. When you are diving an spring at a depth of 200ft. underground, it's not the same as having a 200 ft. column of water above you, right (in terms of nitrogen ongassing)? If you're in a 6 ft. diameter cavern, it's equivalent to diving in 6ft. of open water, right?
4. If #3 is true, then I'm reasoning that maybe you can stay under forever without worrying about DCI, and are just limited by air supply. Which is why they lug around 3 or 4 tanks with them.
Can somebody explain the logistics of cave diving? Thanks.