Zacatón

Since the late 1990s, Dr. Marcus Gary, a hydrogeologist at the Edwards Aquifer Authority and adjunct professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin has studied Sistema Zacatón to understand how the sinkholes formed and how they evolve over time.

[14] During these studies, Gary made extensive use of a number of investigative tools, including those on the DEPTHX probe, geophysics, isotope geochemistry, field mapping, and geomicrobiology.

Gary was a primary member and a principal investigator on the DEPTHX mission, which used an autonomous underwater robot to explore the deepest parts of Zacatón for the first time.

If his interpretation is correct, Sistema Zacatón has more in common with Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone than with other deep sinkholes in this same region of Mexico.

Marc Airhart, a science writer at the Jackson School of Geosciences wrote: It’s a bit like the skin on a can of paint that has been left open in the sun.