nevermind

I was about to solve this "mystery" but someone already did it. Great info, Piney. I'll just add that there are plenty of other places like the Blue Hole. Here are two that I have visited on the Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri:

Round Spring



Blue Spring

Thanks! Is that the "Kettles" that my teacher at Rutgers talked about ?


Lapi'che

There was a legend about a lake in north carolina with glass sides or something. I heard legends about it all the time growing up. . .There something about how you could only find it if you knew where it was...or it didn't appear on aerial photos. ..I don't know, something about it being hard to find! It was supposively bottomless, too. I think. . .I can't remember any much of it. . .I just faintly remember my dad and some other family members telling me about it.

I don't think so. Both springs are part of an extensive network of caverns and underground tributaries that feed the Current and Jacks Fork rivers. Some of the other springs in the system, flow directly into the rivers above the ground like this one:

Welch Spring



I think the term "kettle lakes" refers to deep lakes that hit the water table, but do not flow into other bodies of water. I could be wrong though.

If you're interested in learning more about the springs of southern Missouri, here is the source link where I got all my pictures. It's from the University of Missouri, St. Louis.

LINK

I understand. We do have kettle ponds here but they are shallow and located out in the Pygmy Forest above Penn State forest. They form a line directly to Bear Swamp Hill and were created by meteors. Some people at Rutgers say they were created by the same meteor shower that created the Carolina coastline.


Lapi'che

nice one...

I live in deltona fl. and maybe 5 miles away is a spring called blue spring. It is in the middle of the wilderness and the water appears this blue and this clear. And if you look at it from above or on the edge it seems bottomless. But if you were to look down with goggles you can see a bottom, although the caves below that go down to the aquifer and can't be traced to an exact bottom the spring does have a bottom.

hope this may help http://www.floridastateparks.org/bluespring/default.cfm
(the picture at the top)

ttyl

but these pics arent "too blue" nor are they bottomless...

This is a really interesting and well made topic well done not to ruin it or anything but iv read that it might just be some toxic waste or chemicles running into the lake from a pump or sewer pipe that might be connecting from the local lab hence this is why they wont do any tests

You struck that nail on the head. Dupont was dumping 3M reel to reel film in holes in the Woodmansie Clay Pits during the 1960s. They cleaned it up in the 1980s but the silver nitrate that was contained in the film had already leeched through the sand. One community had to contend with kids with mental health problems but because they were lowly Pineys nobody cared or made an effort to prove anything. A Rutgers professor made a issue but was fired and now lives and works in Canada because he was blackballed by the Government.
There is no local labs here though except for the Rutgers Agriculture Testing Stations now.

Lapi'che

There is kind of the same type of thing in my area of england. Not too far from where i live there is a place called buxton in derbyshire that has a pool but the water isnt brilliant blue like the pictures. Locals call it Mermaids pool because a local witch was drowned in it a long time ago and is supposed to have become the mermaid of the pool and lure men into it and drown them.

The Pool is also said to be bottomless. On one occasion there were fires on the moors around the pool and the local fire services used to fill up their fire engines at the pool, after many trips to the pool for refills the firemen who knew of the legend noticed that the level of the pool had not decreased at all even though large volumes of water had been taken from it. The pool is relatively small and shaped like a heart.

A friend of mine told me about the pool and he said he and some friends took some rope upto the pool and tied a brick to it and threw it in. The brick didnt reach the bottom and the rope continued to fall into the pool until there was none of the rope left. My friend took me and a few others there one night and it was so windy that we could hardly breathe, it was dark and i could see the moonlight shining on the water. It was preety creepy because it is on the top of the moors and in the middle of nowhere, i didnt feel like going anywhere near it it was eerie. I did have some pics on my phone but must have erased them.

If anybody wants directions then PM me and il give you them. Il try and get some of the same pics from my friend if he still has them.

I got one from him. Its not from the time we went but it was shortly before. You can see the hills of the peak district in the background. The Mermaids pool is at the top of the 3rd highest point in England apparently (so i was told) and is 15,000ft above sea level so the pool cannot be refilled by natural methods. Strange place indeed

That's cool. Is is rainy there? Because at that altitude underground springs are out of the question. Maybe it was a old Roman pit mine. I heard they went down really deep and a thousand years of rain would fill it up. Just a guess.

Lapi'che

wow, that is quite cool, and not fillable by natural means? nifty. it's too high for rain clouds then is it? again, sounds nifty.

then i'll piss on yer grave.

Its wet and very windy up there given the altitude but the moor fires i described happened in summer when there was nearly no rainfall to top it up. My pal who took me there told me today that a farmer tried to make a trench to filter of some of the water but he never got to finish it, maybe he just gave up i dont know but the trench is kinda visible in the pic it drops over the side of the hill. He also said that he thinks the mermaid story was made up long ago to keep people away because some criminals used the area god knows why for some illegal activity. The story of the mermaid is slightly different to the on i described. Apparently the woman was drowned after being accused of being a witch (a lot of that went on in england) and with her last breaths cursed the man doing the drowning. Anyway the guy was found at the pool dead with most of his face scratched off shortly after, locals have also described seeing a mermaid splashing in the pool.

Anyway despite the marmaid tale its still a strange pool and the water height never fluctuates, could be a mine pit i dont know. Although the water looks blue you cannot see deeper than a few feet, i wouldnt like to swim in it and find out how deep it really is!

Well, nothing is bottomless.

Thanks, ericraven. I wasn't even going to bother.

I'm from the area where these blue holes are. There's much better ones for swimming in the area

I'll try to link them for you...
pic 1

Pic 2

You can see in the pictures how steep the drop is. You can stand on the beach and literally dive in the water safely. About 10 feet away from the shore, you're well over your head and the water is icy cold.

The story with these holes is pretty much what the other poster explained. There was a glass mill in the area back in the mid to late 1800's. They mined the area for a particular type of fine sand that was abundant here. This one particular hole is the only one in the area (that I'm aware of) that is spring fed. The rumor is that they were mining and hit the water table unexpectedly. The hole filled so quickly with water that they didn't even have time to remove the equipment, and it's supposedly still down there today.

Here's the link to a satellite picture of the area. The lake in the pictures I've posted is the lake closest to the top of the page.

Awww those are so pretty! Can you tell us their exact location??

That's a really good satellite picture link , but I couldn't tell how deep those pools were by just "looking" at them....maybe I just don't know what I'm looking for......beautiful pics though.

They're in Millville NJ and the surrounding towns. That one particular hole is exit 24 off Route 55 South. Go left at the light at the end of the exit. On the right hand side of the road you'll see a well worn dirt road. It's in good enough shape to take a car down there. You'll come to an intersection of dirt roads. Don't try to drive down the intersecting road with a non-4wheel drive vechicle. Park your car off the side of the road near the intersection (the road is monitored by the police and park rangers who'll tow your car if it's in the way). With your back to the way you drove in, face the intersection and take the left turn. Follow that until you can't go straight anymore. The lake is in front of you.

Enjoy it now - they're planning on building 900 houses and a golf course there in the near future.

Onyxdk - sorry, I'm so used to it I must take it for granted.

here's another picture. It's probably not much clearer, but in that picture, there's about 3 feet of relatively shallow water, then it drops at about 45 degree angle. Just look for where the water gets darker blue in color. The deeper the color, the deeper the water.

Yeah, now that you pointed it out, it's easier to see how it "drops-off".....beautiful and a bit unnerving at the same time....really beautiful color, though.

wow, looks like it wasn't bottomless after all. No surrise there.

lol i agree with distortedpandy, bottomless i think not, and then that means that the wirlpool theory isnt true as well

Hello! I just discovered this website today and have been reading the various threads, which are very interesting. Most of the things being discussed I never heard of.

But I DID hear of Blue Holes before.

Mainly the Great Blue Hole in the country of Belize. It's a very popular diving location for experienced divers. It's also one of the planet's great natural wonders. I remember the first time I saw a photo of the Great Blue Hole in [i]Islands Magazine[i]. I thought, "Wow, what is that?" as I had never saw anything like it before. So I looked it up on the Internet.

I suppose I should point out the Great Blue Hole is surrounded by the sea, 60 miles off the mainland (in an atoll). It's located in the Caribbean - in the Lighthouse Reef. It's a Limestone sinkhole. The Great Blue Hole is about one quarter of a mile across (.4 km) and 480 feet deep (145 m). When you dive down deep enough you can see hanging 'curtains' of stalactites, fish and sharks.

You can read more about it here (and see photos):

http://www.ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/greatbluehole.html

You can take a photograph "trip" of the Great Blue Hole and surrounding area here:

http://ambergriscaye.com/blueholetrip/

For a geological study on the Great Blue Hole, click here:

http://www.ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/bluehole.html

Here is a quote from the article that explains how blue holes form:

"" A blue hole is essentially formed when a roof collapses over a cavern and is subsequently filled with water. Geological structures in the Great Blue Hole of Belize are important because they initially can only form in air, when caverns are dry and above sea level. Evidence for the maximum lowering of sea level during successive ice ages over the past several millions of years is sparse. Due to its impressive appearance and mystique the Great Blue Hole was established as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.""

Mainly I think the Great Blue Hole is wonderful and unique. Wish I had a postcard of it.

Anyway, I thought someone might be interested to know about the Great Blue Hole in Belize. Perhaps the other blue holes you mentioned formed the same way.

wow i want to live there, great find merychippus

My neighbors are from New Jersey, I should ask them about this.

Exactly what i was thinking......hard water? i know "HAHA"

darn someone beat me to itsome 30 posts ago wha wha wha

I think it's just a reflection of the sky....

I hate to ruin the fun here but there's nothing mysterious about the blue hole. I live about 10 minutes away and have been there several times. The people at WierdNJ have a way of blowing things out of porportion.

First of all, the picture is doctored. You can barely see a blue hue to the water when you're standing next to it. In a picture it just looks like any other pond - no color at all.

Second, the water is cold because it's spring fed. The water maintains a temp of about 50 deg. all year. The water is clear because of the fact that it's spring fed and drains into the creek next to it.

Third - bottomless - no way. Standing at the edge you can see the bottom in the center - about 7 feet deep. Because it's spring fed the bottom may be very soft leading to the bottomless notion.

Fourth, algea is not growing in the water because the temperature stays too cold.

Lastly, the constant "spooky" gunfire in the background is the state run firing range right behind the blue hole about 300 yards through the woods. It's open to the public and people are there all the time sighting in guns.

The general notion around here is that these stories were made up to keep kids from swimming in the blue hole. Apparantly some people were hurt there and possible drowned from cramping up in the cold water.

Sorry guys, but there's nothing to this legend but a bunch of campfire stories.

You mean people LIED and propagated a myth to cultivate their OWN ends?............ .............un-believable

*gasps in horror*

Is it just my "screwed-up" sense of humor working overtime, or would it be really funny to find a clown swimming in The Blue Hole?

well...

this is an old frickin thread. I had to stop and attempt to remember when I was "serious" (and why people are agreeing with me here) - 2005.....oh those were the days.

Ignore me.

Hah, that's you being serious?

Well that's the end of that.

What about the lake that "can't be filled naturally". Why can't it be?

interesting post wether theres a "big mystery" about these "blue holes" or not..lol..killed some time while i sit here, bored at work with nothing to do..so its safe to say theres not very good fishing there ya?..heh

Not sure...that makes no sense at all.



Well, there goes the "bottomless" claim.....hell of a way to disprove it, though.

Hi,
I'm new to these forums. I found them on a Google search for the Blue Hole. I'm very familiar with the Blue Hole, and have been to it many times.
I have to say though, that there is a much easier way to get to it then going into the woods north of the river and taking a boat. There's no reason to go to all that trouble. All you have to do is drive a little further south on Piney Hollow Road to where you see the blueberry fields on the left. Across from them you make a right on the dirt/sand road where there's a sign for the shotgun range (not the entrance for the archery range). Drive back past the shotgun range itself, maybe a half mile or so in from Piney Hollow Road, to where you see blue blazes on the pine trees on the right. Park and find the trail (blue blazes on the trees on both sides of it). It's about a 3 minute walk from there. That's it. It's very simple. But when driving back to that point, watch out for soft sand and big puddles.

Also someone I know took a canoe out to the middle of it and walked around in the water. It was only 3 to 4 feet deep all the way across, except at the edges where it was a foot deep or less.

Also in all the pictures I've taken the pond looks more green than blue. One other thing- I went there one time in the winter, a couple years ago, when the daytime high was about 15 to 20 degrees, and overnight lows had been in the single digits for more than a week. There was no ice on the pond. In fact there was some very, very faint steam coming off of the surface of the water. The steam was so faint that it was barely visible. I'm estimating that the water says somewhere in the 40-50 degree range year-round.

By the way, the little stream or river that flows near the Blue Hole is actually the Great Egg Harbor River.

Barry

cool story!

One does have not to be an experto to say it was. You are right. If u zoom the image u can see the blue color over some branches and the lake border...

Thats more for illustration I think!

Anyway, I was a good reading.

There's a "blue hole" out where I live. The water is crystal clear, you can see to the bottom(which looks to be about 25 feet, maybe a little more). But if you stand out of hte water, is look blue(kinda similar to that pic). We went there on Kayaking.

Well this is easy to explain if a meteor impacted there it would have punched a hole in to a underground cave system that is fed by still barred well known ice left over from the ice age. The reason the water is so blue and cold is because water melting off of very old ice is very clean and oxgin rich.


It looks amazing and i would in a second go exploring in it.

Yes it does look like it needs a unicorn, maybe some elves.





____ To bad the pic is doctored. It's still a very pretty pic though. (cant believe I just read this whole thread)