Quintana Roo Speleological Survey News!

[L Roebuck]

I don't know if anyone else keeps up with this but there is Great News from the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey today! ;D

Sistema Sac Actun has been connected to Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich! Sistema Sac Actun is now the longest underwater cave in the world and Mexico's longest cave! The explorers have named the entire cave Sistema Sac Actun.

Click HERE to get the scoop!

Roo Surveyors Rock!

[chac]

Hey Lynn,

Yeah the connection between Sistema Sac Actun and Sistema Nohoch Nah Chich is pretty cool. Robbie and Steve (and a number of others) have been working on that connection for a bit over three years. Their latest set of explorations in the past months are very impressive. I got the final connection data last night, so I burned some oil past midnight getting the data on the web site.

I was trying to work up a count of the number of people who have contributed to the overall cave. There's got to be about 125 people who "own" a bit of that cave. You will see that cave get bigger in 2007, no doubt. QRoo cavers do rock!

Jim

[Sharon Faulkner]

Wow...152,975 meters long! That is an impressive amount of cave surveying. A tip of the caving helmet to all the cave divers involved!

Thanks for keeping the QRSS site updated Jim!

[L Roebuck]

Hey Jim, Thanks for burning the midnight oil and adding the data to the website! I do read the latest QRoo Project News often.

Gosh, I would love to hear more about their last 3 month of explorations! How much footage do you think will be added to the total length for the cave system? Any Speculation?
125 cave surveyors! Now that is an impressive number of surveyor for any cave!

Each surveyor deserves an, "Atta Boy Luther!"

[chac]

Hey Lynn and Sharon,

Thanks for both your comments. I made a promise to the Robbie and Steve to post their update promptly, and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of midnight oil yet!

In a nutshell, Sac Actun (White Cave) "starts" at a couple of historical entrances that are about 4 kilometers inland from the coast. Dan Lins, Bil Phillips, Chuck Stevens and other managed to connect the Naval Cave ("Nohoch Ha", or Big Water) about seven years ago. Robbie Schmittner managed to bypass the open water portion of Naval and connect to the E cave section of Naval, and later connect to the Abejas cave (Bees Cave, about 2 years ago).

www.caves.org/project/qrss/cmaps.htm

This got them off and running N up the coast towards Sistema Nohoch Kin (Big Sun), a large cave explored by Mike Madden, Matt Matten, and Lins in 1997. With a lot of help, a connection to Kin was made through a coastal cave just N of Abejas called Altar Maya (explored earlier by Philippe Brunet, Christian Thomas, and Nick Toussaint). Nohoch Kin though, runs N and inland from the coast. Although closer to Nohoch Nah Chich (Big Bird Home, or House), it was still a healthy distance away.

By cruising the jungle, a new cenote was found - Muul Ha (Hill Water). This was eventually connected to Kin; Muul Ha had some interesting passage development to the SE. And this is where the "fun" really started.

By GPS, if the SE trend continued they were 1.8 km from a coastal discharge point for Nohoch Nah Chich (Cenote Manati). Going due E would have been much closer to NNCHich (800 meters). But the cave did not want to go that way. Funny how that happens. The largest problem was that the SE cave got smaller and smaller, the restrictions (constrictions) became more prolific, the cave stayed shallow at the halocline level, and the cave got siltier. Simply put, it was small and silty, with lousy visibility. They still pressed on SE and had to push tanks ahead of them in numerous places (very small cave!). With no real connection in sight, they were reaching the limits of their equipment. They needed a new cenote to continue their "leap-frogging".

They found one (Cenote Por One) about mid-way between the Manti cenote and the end of the Muul Ha SE cave. It's not an inviting place; it too has very small cave. They had already been diving from the Manati Cenote, pushing small leads to the W. As one person was exploring the Por One cave, another was pushing from the Manati side towards Por One. Last week, they finally cinched that connection. That left a final straightline distance of about 250 meters between Por One and the Sac Actun (Muul Ha) caves. It did not take very long to get that figured out.

Will the cave get bigger? By all means. You'll see some interesting developments in the next year. There's still a lot to look at and explore in Sac Actun, and there are nearby caves that will probably be connected.

Jim

[Brian Roebuck]

Y'all are doing some serious caving and diving down there! This is the kind of adventure and exploration that good books are written about. I hope that one day all the details and personal challenges are written down for the rest of us "above water cavers" to enjoy and admire. BTW for those cavers in the U.S. this is equivalent to 87 miles of passage! WOW!

My congratulations on a world class caving accomplishment!

[guanonoggin]

Dudes,

Totally awesome man! Mega good Karma pointage! The Q-Roo team is on a Roll!

Woo hoo!

[L Roebuck]

Hey Jim thanks so much for posting all the QRoo information!

How exciting! Yes inquiring cavers minds want to know " Will the cave get bigger "? So please do let us know when updates are made to the website. It will no doubt be one of top survey projects to follow in the coming year!

[chac]

As I promised to Lynn, the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) web site was updated tonight. A really neat lead was found off an old 1993 surveyed passage (yes, surveyed almost 14 years ago!) in Sistema Sac Actun. There's about 624m (2047ft) of new exploration and it still goes in a couple of leads. You will hear more about this cave!

Five other caves are updated as well on the web site, lending a total of 2.6km (1.6 miles) of new passage since the last QRSS January update. I wish I could say more concerning the specifics, but it's really not my place to do so. The explorers need to take credit through their own words on this. Perhaps they will author an article in the upcoming 2007 AMCS Activities Newsletter, or in the NSS News?

QRSS now has over 657km (408 miles) of underwater and dry cave survey data for the area. My deepest thanks to those who contribute to this effort!

Jim

www.caves.org/project/qrss/

[Sharon Faulkner]

chac said:

As I promised to Lynn, the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) web site was updated tonight. A really neat lead was found off an old 1993 surveyed passage (yes, surveyed almost 14 years ago!) in Sistema Sac Actun. There's about 624m (2047ft) of new exploration and it still goes in a couple of leads. You will hear more about this cave!

Excellent work. Thanks for letting us know about the updates Jim!

[L Roebuck]

chac said:

As I promised to Lynn, the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) web site was updated tonight. A really neat lead was found off an old 1993 surveyed passage (yes, surveyed almost 14 years ago!) in Sistema Sac Actun. There's about 624m (2047ft) of new exploration and it still goes in a couple of leads. You will hear more about this cave!

Five other caves are updated as well on the web site, lending a total of 2.6km (1.6 miles) of new passage since the last QRSS January update. I wish I could say more concerning the specifics, but it's really not my place to do so. The explorers need to take credit through their own words on this. Perhaps they will author an article in the upcoming 2007 AMCS Activities Newsletter, or in the NSS News?

QRSS now has over 657km (408 miles) of underwater and dry cave survey data for the area. My deepest thanks to those who contribute to this effort!

Jim

www.caves.org/project/qrss/

Thanks! You are the greatest Jim!
I checked out the webpage and now look forward to reading more from the explorers!

[Brian Roebuck]

408 miles! That is getting up there! What a fantastic achievement!

Congrats to the team!