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Zacatón (El Zacatón sinkhole) is a thermal water filled sinkhole belonging to the Zacatón system - a group of unusual karst features located in Aldama Municipality near the Sierra de Tamaulipas in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is the deepest known water-filled sinkhole in the world with a total depth of : the plus deep Pozzo del Merro (Sant'Angelo Romano, Latium Region, Italy) is deeper (actual depth yet unknown), but Using an autonomous robot, the underwater portion of Zacatón has been measured to be deep (a difference between the rim of cliff and surface of water adds to the total depth). Zacatón is the only sinkhole of the five located in Rancho La Azufrosa to have any noticeable water flow. The name Zacatón comes from the free-floating islands of zacate grass which move around on the surface with the wind. Scrapings from the rock walls beneath the surface yielded at least 3 new phyla of bacteria. == Diving == El Zacatón's depth has made it an important dive site: * Dr. Ann Kristovich set the women's world depth record of during a 1993 dive into the sinkhole. * On April 6, 1994, explorer diver Jim Bowden and cave diving pioneer Sheck Exley entered El Zacatón with the intent of reaching bottom. Bowden dived to a men's world record depth of ,〔(Zacaton. A History by Dr. by Ann Kristovich )〕 but Exley died, probably from high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) at a depth of . * The NASA Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) project used the sinkhole as a testbed for robotic hardware being developed to explore the Jovian moon of Europa. DEPTHX was designed and integrated by NASA principal investigator Stone Aerospace. Additional co-investigators on the Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer (DEPTHX) team included Carnegie Mellon University, Southwest Research Institute, Colorado School of Mines, The University of Arizona, and the University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zacatón」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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