“About 120 miles east of Albuquerque, on the eastern edge of the town of Santa Rosa, N.M., lies a tiny oval of blue water—a spring-fed sinkhole about 80 feet wide and 81 feet deep—known as the Blue Hole. Sometime ago a group of scuba divers dove into the Blue Hole, eager to explore every nook and fissure of the smooth-walled sinkhole. After climbing out, they realized one of their divers had disappeared. Six months later, the body of that diver finally surfaced, but not in Santa Rosa. It was discovered, the story claims, in Lake Michigan—more than a thousand miles away—naked, waterlogged and with much of its skin scuffed off, as if it had been pushed and scraped through miles of rocky tunnels.” The one, terrible word BLDGBLOG was gouged into his flesh…
(Story via Warren Ellis; image via Wikipedia).
Anyone have any insights into why they're giving them so much helium? to help ward off the bends?
Otherwise, fascinating and ridiculous at the same time. Who knew, the NYC water system needed this kind of intense repairs.
Here's my take on the article from a while back. Easily one of the most interesting hydro stories I've read that year.
http://pruned.blogspot.com/2008/12/deep-sea-living-in-underground-tunnels.html
I knew I'd seen that before—thanks, Alex! Added it to the post.
Anonymous asked, "Anyone have any insights into why they're giving them so much helium?"
Narcosis while diving or Nitrogen Narcosis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_narcosis
Not only Nitregon Narcosis (or inert gas narcosis). O2 becomes toxic creating convulsions after about 220 or higher. So O2 and both N are reduced by adding He and solving both problems. He is used regularly by deep technical divers diving beyond 50m (165 feet)