FREE DIVING INTO A VOLCANIC LAKE
WITH PIX AND VID
By Shuk Yee Tsang
A freediver plunged through layers of warm freshwater and saltwater into a sulfuric volcanic lake where the sand behaves like quicksand.
The extraordinary dive was filmed in Barracuda Lake, Coron, Philippines, by Adam Stern from Australia, an eight-time national freediving record holder and instructor trainer.
He explained that Barracuda Lake is a volcanic crater lake where freshwater fills the first 13 meters at around 29°C, before turning to saltwater at 36°C.
The deeper divers go, the warmer it gets, reaching about 33°C near the layer at 40 meters deep, where visibility drops into darkness.
Adam said: “This is definitely not a normal ocean floor!”
“This looks like an ordinary ocean floor, but it’s not.
"It’s Barracuda Lake in Coron and nothing here is what it seems.
"The lake is made up of freshwater for the first 13 meters, then saltwater as the temperature increases.
"The deeper you go, the warmer it gets all the way down to a black cloud of sulfur.
"The Barracuda give the lake its name, and it’s filled with incredible limestone structures and a strange, shifting lake floor, the closest thing to quicksand I’ve ever seen.”
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