Nature · Belize · March 2008 seismic line 18
Great Blue Hole: depth and source profile
This digitized March 2008 seismic section reaches approximately 121 meters below the plotted sea-surface zero.
≈ 121 m
Data-derived estimate- Measurement
- Depth below plotted surface zero · figure-derived ± about 5 m
- Subject or version
- Belize · March 2008 seismic line 18
- In feet, rounded
- 397.6 ft (1 ft = 0.3048 m)
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A little more perspective
The profile follows the green interpreted seafloor of south-to-north seismic line 18 in Figure 4 of Gischler, Anselmetti and Shinn (2013). The survey took place in March 2008. Seventeen points were read from the original embedded figure using its 60-meter horizontal and 20-meter vertical scale bars. The deepest plotted value is about 121 meters, with an approximately five-meter visual reading allowance rather than a statistical confidence interval. Decimal coordinates retain the digitization calculation, not submeter accuracy.
The authors infer quasi-vertical walls from unmigrated seismic diffraction and caution that small floor undulations can reflect swell. The plotted section is about 428 meters wide at the published scale; it is not a plan-view diameter measurement. Its sea-surface zero has no documented tide or geodetic correction. No cave overhangs, stalactites or new basin curve are invented. The widely quoted 124-meter tourism reference and newer 2018 expedition are separate from this 2008 figure-derived profile.
Quick facts
This digitized March 2008 seismic section reaches approximately 121 meters below the plotted sea-surface zero.
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Sources and measurement notes
- Gischler, Anselmetti and Shinn (2013), Marine Geology 344: Figure 4, line 18
- Author-hosted paper with the original seismic profile and scale bars
Keep the source method and surface datum with this approximate depth.
Source review recorded . Maintained by Ishan Karunaratne. Suggest a correction with a source and the exact measurement being compared.