Recent measurements place the Taam ja’ blue hole, in Chetumal Bay, Quintana Roo, as the deepest of its kind in the world so far. Scientists have reached 420 meters below sea level and there is still more.
A team of scientists from the National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies, and its Public Center El Colegio de la Frontera Sur reported in 2023 the discovery of a blue hole, at that time the measurement was 274.4 meters, making it the second largest deepest in the world of its kind and the only one in an estuary system.
It has a morphology similar to that of a cenote, but it differs from it by the dominance of water with brackish or marine characteristics and by being completely submerged.
The team made measurements with the Conductivity, Temperature and Depth (CTD) profiler instrument to understand the characteristics of the water column inside the blue hole.
Significant variations in temperature and salinity, different water layers and transition zones were identified. Furthermore, the characteristics of the water suggest the probable existence of underground connections between the bay and the Caribbean Sea through the hole.