Looking nearly as pristene as when we arrived
The equipment set up for the final dive
The Final Day
Friday, September 22, 2000 –
To wrap things up, we had two small teams getting a few more photos and cleaning up the site. Grant and Mark went to the new cenote, named Cenote de los Muchachos for the locals that made the whole expedition possible, to take some pictures. Terrence, Kyle and Renee headed back to Cenote Camilo to get some video and clean up the site. Unfortunately, after two light failures and an equalization problem, the video dive had to be aborted. We’ll just have to go back to get the video – darn!
After their short dive, Grant and Mark were getting ready to leave the jungle when, in the light of day, Grant noticed the terrain around the cenote. The rock faced ledge behind the water continued into the jungle. He began cutting a path along the perimeter of this dry sinkhole. After 200 feet, he came across two other small pools of muddy water along this same rock face. One of the pools had a line coming out and tied to a tree – it was cenote mud! As it turns out, all of these holes are part of the same sinkhole or cenote. Since we made this connection, Cenote Mud was renamed to Cenote de los Muchachos (because it is actually part of the same cenote that we found) and Cenote Calavera has become part of Sistema Camilo. What a way to end this expedition! We surveyed over 12,000 feet of cave and hope to receive the survey data on Calavera (from Steve Gerrard) to add to our existing map of Sistema Camilo. I found the magnetic deviation for the area to be – 3 degrees, so there is a slight adjustment in the map.
We will return. So keep in touch.
Send questions or comments to the trilobite.
Questions and Comments To the Trilobite
Hey Hootie, stay out of those holes, they look dangerous! All is well here. Year end closing going OK. Treece’s Grandmother died (91 years old). The General is on the East Coast, the Chief is on the West Coast, all is well. Be careful, get on back.
The Big Hooite!
We’re on our way. Sorry to hear about Treece’s Grandmother.
Kyle et al
Thanks for the information. But, I have more questions that I hope you can answer before leaving. Is the salt water the same temperature as the overlying fresh water? Have you taken a GPS reading at the Hotel and on the road. It would be helpful if you could make a series of way points along the trail to the cenote entrance you are using. I’m using the posted September 20th map on the index map I’m sending Cindy. Again is there any evidence of salt water movement such as ripple marks?
Don’t forget to find time to bring back a stalagmite. This could be a great chance to find out when the caves were formed and how many time they have been exposed to above sea level during the past glacially induced fluctuations. The 70 ft. level for the cave system ties in to the 60 to 70 ft still stand approximately 8,000 years ago and prior periods as sea level moved up and down the continental margins. Is there any evidence of multiple growth periods in the spleothems.
Keep up the great work you all. I’m looking forward to a long talk when you get back in the states.
Bob DillThere doesn’t appear to be a significant difference in water temperatures between the fresh and salt layers. The broken speleothems that we have seen appear to have concentric rings – multiple layers of growth. Terrence will be returning to Mexico in March and could probably pick up a stalagmite at that time. The trail was mapped with several GPS points to begin with, so we have those points. Talk to you soon.
Two miles, incredible! Congratulations, on another successful expedition. “Tanker trucks”, sounds like my kind of place. Again, congratulations,
ClydeCertainly, it more than we could have hoped for. We missed having you along . . . maybe next time.