Devils Hole is habitat for the only naturally occurring population of the endangered Devils Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis). The 40 acres (16ha) unit is part of the Ash Meadows complex, an area of desert uplands and spring-fed oases that was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge in 1984.
Description
Devils Hole is a geothermalpool within a limestonecavern in the Amargosa Desert in the Amargosa Valley of Nevada, east over the Amargosa Range and Funeral Mountains from Death Valley. It is at an elevation of 730m (2,400ft) above sea level[1] and the water is a constant temperature of 33°C (91°F).[2] The surface area of Devils Hole is about 22 m long by 3.5 m wide (72ft long by 11.5ft wide). Approximately 0.3m (1.0ft) deep on one end of Devils Hole is a small rock shelf of 3.5 by 5m (11 by 16ft). The dissolved oxygen of the water is 2.5–3.0 ppm up to around 22m (72ft) in depth, though the shallow shelf can have dissolved oxygen levels as high as 6.0–7.0 ppm in June and July.[1]
A viewing platform overlooks the hole.
Devils Hole branches into caverns at least 130m (430ft) deep,[2] whose bottom has never been mapped.[3] According to geologists, the caves were formed over 500,000 years ago.[4] The pool has frequently experienced seiche activity due to far away earthquakes in Japan, Indonesia, Mexico, and Chile, which have been likened to extremely small scale tsunamis.[3]
Below the surface pool, Devils Hole descends approximately 160 feet (50m) through what is termed the "main chamber" before reaching a narrow opening referred to as the 'funnel'. Through this opening lies a much larger chamber of the cavern system known as Acree's Chasm. Acree's Chasm is approximately 300 feet (91m) in length, 40 feet (12m) in width, and has a bottom approximately 260 feet (80m) below the surface.[5][6]
Immediately after passing the funnel into Acree's Chamber, a narrow side tube can be found to a diver's left. This side tube proceeds approximately 90 feet (27m) upward to a chamber with an air pocket, named Brown's Room. The tube leading to Brown's Room has at least 2 offshoots, the higher of which leads to a dead-end filled with a small air pocket, and the lower of which joins with additional tubes descending from Brown's Room.[5] If the diver instead descends through Acree's Chamber, the first notable landmark is a rocky shelf termed the "lower ledge", around 100 feet (30m) below the entrance to the chamber. The bottom of Acree's Chamber lies around 260 feet (79m) below the surface, but is not flat. Instead, a portion of the chamber floor descends below this lower shelf; a gradual funnel leads to a hole in the bottom of the chamber featuring a strong current. The hole, later termed the ojo de agua, is 315 feet (96m) below the surface and just large enough for a diver with equipment to fit through.
In 1965, Paul Giancontieri, a teenager who had jumped the fence with friends to go SCUBA diving in the hole, did not come back up. Another, David Rose, went down to find him, but did not come back up either.[7] Later efforts by five divers to find their bodies were unsuccessful.[8]
On June 20, 1965, during the second dive of a rescue and then body recovery mission, Jim Houtz with his dive partner dropped a weighted depth line to a depth of 932 feet (284m) from the start of this opening, without hitting the bottom of the chamber below. Due to the strong current, the small size of the entrance, and the unknown depth of the cavern below, which Houtz termed the "Infinity Room", Jim and his partner chose not to explore this Infinity Room. This mission did, however, confirm that the Infinity Room of Devil's Hole, and the cavern system itself, has a depth of at least 1,247 feet (380m) from the surface.[9][6]
Updated diagram of Devils Hole (2005)
A subsequent USGS exploration into Devil's Hole in 1991 by Alan Riggs, Paul DeLoach, and Sheck Exley entered what they found out to be a narrow tube rather than an 'Infinity Room' at 315 feet (96m), descending to a depth of 436 feet (133m). The team reported being able to see down to a depth of some 500 feet (150m), without visualizing the bottom of the cavern.[6]
On March 20, 2012, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico, some 2,000 miles (3,200km) away and centered roughly 12 miles (19km) below the surface, caused an undulating 4 feet (1.2m) rise and fall of the cavern waters, as appreciated by researchers working at Devil's Hole at the time. This provided further evidence that the Devil's Hole cave system was connected not only to the Death Valley Regional Groundwater Flow System, but possibly to even further-reaching underground water systems.[citation needed] The 1991 USGS dive team described the Devil's Hole as a "skylight" into the water table.[6]
A team of paleoclimatologists from the University of Innsbruck have been collecting and dating calcite mineral deposits here since 2010.[10] In March 2017, underwater cinematographer Jonathan Bird received permission to assist scientists in a four-day expedition to take water and calcite core samples.[11] The IMAX footage was included in the 2020 film Ancient Caves and extra footage was used to create the video documentary Exploring Devils Hole.[12]
On September 19, 2022, a seiche reaching 4 feet (1.2 metres) occurred at Devils Hole after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit western Mexico, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) away. Seiches were also observed in the cave after powerful earthquakes in 2012, 2018 and 2019.[14]
Devils Hole Cave
Diagram of Devils Hole Cave (1988)
Located 650 feet (200m) north of Devils Hole is a separate cave system called Devils Hole Cave (#2). It was first explored underwater to a depth of 70 feet (21m) by divers from the Southwestern Speleological Society in February 1961. It had been described as being shaped like a boot with fallen rock restriction at the 50-foot (15m) level leading to a narrow pool of 93°F (34°C) water.[5] Since no sunlight reaches the water, algae cannot grow and no fish species are found.[15]
On the surface, the cave openings are connected to Devils Hole by an access road and covered with a locked metal grate. Below ground, a passable deepwater connection to Devils Hole has been theorized but remains undiscovered.[15]
Devils Hole is the only natural habitat of the Devils Hole pupfish, which survives despite the hot, oxygen-poor water.[16] Devils Hole "may be the smallest habitat in the world containing the entire population of a vertebrate species".[2] The pupfish are considered critically endangered by the IUCN.[17] The pupfish has been described as the world's rarest fish,[18] with a population of 263 as of 2022.[19]Genetic information indicates that the pupfish species is as old as the Hole itself, which opened to the surface about 60,000 years ago.[20][21]
The pupfish have been protected since being declared an endangered species in 1967.[22] Conflicts of the ownership and use of the groundwater around Devils Hole caused litigation in the 1980s.[23] The litigation triggered further protections of the pupfish. Since the late 1990s, the pupfish population has substantially decreased. The reasons for the decrease are unknown, but is possibly due to a microscopic non-indigenous diving beetle that is consuming pupfish eggs.[22][24]
Wookey Hole Caves are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F).
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water enters into underground passages known as ponor, swallow hole or swallet. A cenote is a type of sinkhole that exposes groundwater underneath. Sink and stream sink are more general terms for sites that drain surface water, possibly by infiltration into sediment or crumbled rock.
The Death Valley pupfish, also known as Salt Creek pupfish, is a small species of fish in the family Cyprinodontidae found only in Death Valley National Park, California, United States. There are two recognized subspecies: C. s. salinus and C. s. milleri. The Death Valley pupfish is endemic to two small, isolated locations and currently classified as endangered.
The Amargosa River is an intermittent waterway, 185 miles (298 km) long, in southern Nevada and eastern California in the United States. The Amargosa River is one out of two rivers located in the California portion of the Mojave Desert with perenial flow. It drains a high desert region, the Amargosa Valley in the Amargosa Desert northwest of Las Vegas, into the Mojave Desert, and finally into Death Valley where it disappears into the ground aquifer. Except for a small portion of its route in the Amargosa Canyon in California and a small portion at Beatty, Nevada, the river flows above ground only after a rare rainstorm washes the region. A 26-mile (42 km) stretch of the river between Shoshone and Dumont Dunes is protected as a National Wild and Scenic River. At the south end of Tecopa Valley the Amargosa River Natural Area protects the habitat.
A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting when a collapse of limestone bedrock exposes groundwater. The term originated on the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where the ancient Maya commonly used cenotes for water supplies, and occasionally for sacrificial offerings. The name derives from a word used by the lowland Yucatec Maya—tsʼonoʼot—to refer to any location with accessible groundwater.
The Tecopa pupfish is an extinct subspecies of the Amargosa pupfish. The small, heat-tolerant pupfish was endemic to the outflows of a pair of hot springs in the Mojave Desert of Inyo County, California. Habitat modifications, the introduction of non-native species and hybridization with the related Amargosa River pupfish led to its extinction around 1979.
The Shoshone pupfish is a subspecies of Cyprinodon nevadensis from California in the United States. It is characterized by large scales and a "slab-sided," narrow, slender body, with the arch of the ventral contour much less pronounced than the dorsal. It also has fewer pelvic fin rays and scales than the other subspecies of C. nevadensis.
The Devils Hole pupfish is a critically endangered species of the family Cyprinodontidae (pupfishes) found only in Devils Hole, a water-filled cavern in the US state of Nevada. It was first described as a species in 1930 and is most closely related to C. nevadensis and the Death Valley pupfish. The age of the species is unknown, with differing analyses offering ranges between one thousand and sixty thousand years. It is a small fish, with maximum lengths of up to 30 mm (1.2 in). Individuals vary in coloration based on age and sex: males are bright metallic blue while females and juveniles are more yellow. A defining trait of this species is its lack of pelvic fins. The pupfish consumes nearly every available food resource at Devils Hole, including beetles, snails, algae, and freshwater crustaceans, with diet varying throughout the year. It is preyed on by the predaceous diving beetle species Neoclypeodytes cinctellus, which was first observed in Devils Hole in 1999 or 2000. Reproduction occurs year-round, with spikes in the spring and fall. Females produce few eggs and the survivorship from egg to adult is low. Individuals live 10–14 months.
Pupfish are a group of small killifish belonging to ten genera of the family Cyprinodontidae of ray-finned fish. Pupfish are especially noted for being found in extreme and isolated situations. They are primarily found in North America, South America, and the Caribbean region. As of August 2006, 120 nominal species and 9 subspecies were known. Several pupfish species are extinct and most extant species are listed. In the U.S., the most well-known pupfish species may be the Devils Hole pupfish, native to Devils Hole on the Nevada side of Death Valley National Park. Since 1995 the Devils Hole pupfish has been in a nearly steady decline, where it was close to extinction at 35–68 fish in 2013.
Moaning Caverns is a solutional cave located in the Calaveras County, California, near Vallecito, California in the heart of the state's Gold Country. It is developed in marble of the Calaveras Formation. It was discovered in modern times by gold miners in 1851, but it has long been known as an interesting geological feature by prehistoric peoples. It gets its name from the moaning sound that echoed out of the cave luring people to the entrance, however expansion of the opening to allow access for the public disrupted the sounds. The portion of the cave developed for tourists consists of a spacious vertical shaft 165 feet tall, which is descended by a combination of stairs and a unique 100-foot-high (30 m) spiral staircase built in the early 1900s. It is open to the public for walking tours and spelunking. Including the off-trail areas, the cave reaches a depth of 410 feet.
Cyprinodon is a genus of pupfishes found in waters that range from fresh to hypersaline. The genus is primarily found in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands and southern United States, but C. variegatus occurs as far north as Massachusetts and along the entire Gulf of Mexico coastline, and C. dearborni and C. variegatus are found in northern South America. Many species have tiny ranges and are highly threatened, in some cases already extinct. Cyprinodon are small; the largest reaches 10 cm (3.9 in) in length and most other species only reach about half that size.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an American national park in the Guadalupe Mountains of southeastern New Mexico. The primary attraction of the park is the show cave Carlsbad Cavern. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance or take an elevator from the visitor center.
The Owens pupfish is a rare species of fish in the family Cyprinodontidae, the pupfish. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is limited to the Owens Valley. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States. This pupfish is up to 5 centimetres long, the largest males sometimes longer. The male is blue-gray, turning bright blue during spawning. The female is greenish brown with a silvery or whitish belly.
The Blue Hole of Santa Rosa, or simply the Blue Hole, is a circular, bell-shaped pool or small lake located along Route 66 east of Santa Rosa, New Mexico that is a tourist attraction and swimming venue, and one of the most popular dive destinations in the US for scuba diving and training. The Blue Hole is an artesian well and cenote that was once used as a fish hatchery.
The desert pupfish is a rare species of bony fish in the family Cyprinodontidae. It is a small fish, typically less than 7.62 cm (3 in) in length. Males are generally larger than females, and have bright-blue coloration, while females and juveniles are silvery or tan. A notable attribute of the desert pupfish is their ability to survive in environments of extreme salinity, pH, and temperature, and low oxygen content. The desert pupfish mates in a characteristic fashion, wherein compatible males and females will come in contact and collectively jerk in an s-shape. Each jerk typically produces a single egg that is fertilized by the male and deposited in his territory. Breeding behavior includes aggressive arena-breeding and more docile consort-pair breeding.
The Death Valley freshwater ecoregion is a freshwater ecoregion in the western United States. It consists of endorheic rivers, lakes, and springs in the drainages of the Owens, Amargosa, and Mojave Rivers, in central-eastern California and southwestern Nevada.
Cyprinodon nevadensis is a species of pupfish in the genus Cyprinodon. The species is also known as the Amargosa pupfish, but that name may also refer to one subspecies, Cyprinodon nevadensis amargosae. All six subspecies are or were endemic to very isolated locations in the Mojave Desert of California and Nevada.
Short Drop Cave and Gavel Pot are different entrances into the same cave system on Leck Fell, in Lancashire, England. The main top entrance, Short Drop Cave, is a small hole in a fenced off shakehole near the main stream sink. Gavel Pot, a window into the system, is a large fenced shakehole some 40-metre (130 ft) deep requiring tackle to descend. There are two other smaller entrances into Short Drop Cave. At its base the system links via a sump with Lost Johns' Cave, and is part of the Three Counties System, an 87 kilometres (54 mi) cave system which spans the borders of Cumbria, Lancashire, and North Yorkshire.
The 1973 Mount Gambier cave diving accident was a scuba diving incident on 28 May 1973 at a flooded sinkhole known as "The Shaft" near Mount Gambier in South Australia. The incident claimed the lives of four recreational scuba divers: siblings Stephen and Christine M. Millott, Gordon G. Roberts, and John H. Bockerman. The four divers explored beyond their own planned limits, without the use of a guideline, and subsequently became lost, eventually exhausting their breathing air and drowning, with their bodies all recovered over the next year. To date, they are the only known fatalities at the site. Four other divers from the same group survived.
References
1 2 Baugh, Thomas M.; Deacon, James E. (1983). "Daily and Yearly Movement of the Devil's Hole Pupfish Cyprinodon Diabolis Wales in Devil's Hole, Nevada". The Great Basin Naturalist. 43 (4): 592–596. JSTOR41712019.
1 2 3 4 Riggs, AC; Deacon, JE (2002). Connectivity in Desert Aquatic Ecosystems: The Devils Hole Story. Spring-fed Wetlands: Important Scientific and Cultural Resources of the Intermountain Region. CiteSeerX10.1.1.546.1508.
↑ Sağlam, İsmail K.; Baumsteiger, Jason; Smith, Matt J.; Linares-Casenave, Javier; etal. (2016). "Phylogenetics supports an ancient common origin of two scientific icons: Devils Hole and Devils Hole pupfish". Molecular Ecology. 25 (16): 3962–73. doi:10.1111/mec.13732. PMID27314880. S2CID21832372.
1 2 "Devils Hole Pupfish". U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. December 2, 2013. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
↑ Minckley, WL; Deacon, JE (1991). Battle against extinction: native fish management in the American West. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN978-0816512218.
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