Divers made a disturbing discovery at the bottom of the Great Blue Hole in Belize.
It's an iconic landmark, or 'seamark', which has become almost synonymous with a sense of mystery and the unknown.
When divers made their way to the bottom of the mysterious landmark, they found something unexpected.
What is the Great Blue Hole?
Located in Belize, the geographical feature is an enormous flooded sinkhole.
Advert
In fact, it's one of the largest marine sinkholes in the world, spanning some 300 metres (984ft) across, and being about 125 metres (410ft) deep.
It might be a pond compared to the deepest parts of the ocean, but it's still too deep for recreational scuba divers to reach the bottom.
More than four times too deep in fact, as the maximum depth a recreational scuba diver is trained to dive to is 30 meters.
The expedition
In 2018, Richard Branson and a crew from Aquatica Submarines carried out a descent to the bottom of the Great Blue Hole.
Advert
Despite life being found at much greater depths in the open ocean, they found that once they got to 90 meters any signs of life began to diminish.
Erika Bergman, who went on the expedition, explained that this was due to a layer of hydrogen sulphide across the sinkhole which, in addition to being toxic, prevented oxygen from getting to its deepest points.
Speaking to Business Insider at the time, she said: "We found conchs and conch shells and hermit crabs that had fallen into the hole and suffocated."
What did divers find at the bottom of the Great Blue Hole?
Sadly, the expedition came across the bodies of two divers who had been lost in the Great Blue Hole during a previous expedition.
Advert
Bergman said: "We found the resting place of a couple folks, and we very respectfully let the Belize government know where we found them.
"Everyone decided that we would just not attempt any recovery. It’s very dark and peaceful down there, just kind of let them stay."
The team also spotted more evidence of human activity as they came across a two litre soda bottle which had made its way to the bottom of the sinkhole.
Sadly, this is not the only location with trash in it, as trash has been found all the way at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth.
Advert
From the skies above to the deepest oceans, humanity's reach truly has no limits.
Topics: Environment, News, World News