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From: <Hazel.Barton@UC*.ed*>
To: cavers@ditell.com, cavers@cavers.com
Cc: caverbob@ao*.co*, chac@lc*.ne*, akumal@ca*.co*,
     lgu@ma*.ca*.ne*.mx*, Hazel.Barton@UC*.ed*
Subject: New Longest Underwater Cave in World
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 21:26:15 -0700
Fellow cavers,

We are presently in the process of reinstating the Quintana Roo
Speleological Survey's position as a project of the National Speleological
Society. In the meantime, we have been updating the data files of the known
caves in Quintana Roo. 

After all available data was compared, we are pleased to announce that the
longest, surveyed underwater cave in the world is now Ox Bel Ha at 43.88
miles/70.65 kilometers. According to Bob Gulden's long cave list, this makes
Ox Bel Ha the 18th longest cave in the world.

This is an incredible achievement considering that the initial exploratory
dives by Sam Meacham and Bil Phillips began in January of 1998 (dry cavers
should consider the difficulty of surveying imposed by the underwater
environment).

The latest data for the longest caves in Quintana Roo are as follows:

Cave System 	     Length     Depth   Reported by	Date
1. Ox Bel Ha         70 650 m   -33 m   Sam Meacham	1/00
2. Nohoch Nah Chich  60 985m*	-72m	Dan Lins	1/00
3. Sistema Dos Ojos  55 322m*	-101m	Jim Coke	1/00

*Some of the lengths indicated here are shorter than previously published,
this is due to survey and data entry errors that previously extended the
length of the caves. These data errors have been identified and resolved to
generate the lengths presented.

Happy caving and cartographically yours,

The Directors of the Quintana Roo Speleological Survey,

Hazel Barton
Jim Coke
Dan Lins
Gary Walten

We would like to thank Larry Fish for his help in producing a conversion
program that has allowed much of the QR survey data to be converted to a
usable form in Compass.

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