ADAM HAYDOCK

SHIPWRECK OF THE KYLE SPANGLER

July 21, 2015

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

Last dive of the trip and we are over the Kyle Spangler!! another beautiful shipweck with her masts standing proud at 110ft and the wreck is laying to rest at 185ft.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

In november of 1860 the spangler was rammed by the Racine with no lives lost. she was carrying a load of corn.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

We all giant stride into the water and the sun is starting to show its face as we descended down to a depth of arounf 170ft.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

We noticed the massive mast structures standing tall in the water and the intergity of the wreck still looks pretty awesome, even today.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

I worked my way over to the bridge house and I found it to be a bit cumbersome to get into the entrance with all of these tanks on me so I opted to just stay out and not break anything. Walter just turned to the side and glided his way into the bridge house, yea he was pimping the spangler for sure!!

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

We ended up starting our ascent and everything went well as we made it back to the surface in good time and good health.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

We had an absolute blast on the lake this weekend and once again, we are grateful that we had great weather and a good charter with Joe from Thunder Bay Scuba.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

We got back to the shore and it was a beautiful sunday in the harbor with clear water and just a great vibe

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

I ended up getting home pretty late but it was worth every penny and the experience was just amazing!

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

I want to thank Joe from Thunder Bay Scuba for running another great charter and for taking us out to these amazing wrecks.

Shipwreck of the Kyle Spangler

More info on dive charters go to: www.tbscuba.com

Video on the Spangler

FLICKR:

MORE INFORMATION ON THE KYLE SPANGLER IN 3D!:

http://thunderbay.noaa.gov/shipwrecks/kyle_spangler.html

Kyle Spangler not my photo

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SHIPWRECK OF THE S.S. FLORIDA

July 20, 2015

Shipwreck of the S.S. Florida

Day 3 in Alpena Michigan and the weather worked out for us pretty well to make a run out to the shipwreck of the S.S. Florida and the Kyle Spangler. These two shipwrecks have a reputation of being some of the most interesting in all of the great lakes as they are in excellent condition where they lay to rest at depth.

Shipwreck of the S.S. Florida

The first shipwreck we visit is the wreck of the Florida. We were told that she is at around 205 to the dirt but we found her bottom to be at 197ft. and the deck was very much so enjoyed at a depth of 176ft. which included visiting her upper deck cabins and wheelhouse.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

What's interesting about this wreck, the Windiate, the Norman, and others near by is that they are all in amazing super condition and all have some very interesting history to them. The 271x40x15 wooden steamer sank in May of 1897 in 200ft. of water, taking down a lot of merchandise with her. The George Roby rammed her starboard aft and she sank in 10-12 minutes. Today she is in excellent condition with many artifacts to view ( leave them on the ship) as well as her multi deck cargo holds that can be penetrated. Her engine room is in great condition with the gauges that still read that trouble she found herself in when she sank to the depths where she is resting today.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

We all dive into 2-4ft. waves and descend down to a depth of between 176ft to 197ft. The first thing I notice is how massive this wreck is, WOW very in tact and very impressive. we were at around a depth of between 173 and 175 feet on the deck.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

We swim down her deck and notice the artifact laying all over the deck and in the holds. There were three decks on this ship so she was quite large in size and plenty of fun swim throughs to enjoy.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

We notice the bridge house and the axe under the window to the bridge house so we found a way to enter the tight quarters of the bridge house and ended up turning around since it got a bit tight with this mini dive shop on our persons.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

A lot of my pictures came out a bit dark and blurred but I managed to get a few decent shots of the ship which turned out ok.

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

We swam back and about the time we got to the anchor line we started to make our ascent to the surface without any incident

Shipwreck of the Florida, Presque Isle, Michigan

The water at the surface was around 60 degrees and it dropped to a warm 42 degrees at depth

Shipwreck of the SS Florida

The SS Florida was one of the most amazing wrecks I have ever seen and I can not wait to go back to it and get into some more of the lower holds and in the engine room.

shipwreck of the florida. Photo by Jitka Hanakova of shipwreck explorers.

One of the rooms had the metal and wood slowly decaying and it appeared to look like stalactites on the ceiling as they slowly start to decay and crumble. What an amazing experience.

shipwreck of the florida. Photo by Jitka Hanakova of shipwreck explorers

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU0-KMDRx9w

FLICKR: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/sets/72157655724858850

More info on our charter check out Thunder Bay Scuba : www.tbscuba.com

more pictures from Jitka Hanakova click here

More information on the S.S. Florida here: http://thunderbay.noaa.gov/shipwrecks/florida.html

Photo from the thunder bay noaa sanctuary

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ROCKPORT AND PRESQUE ISLE INLAND SINKHOLES

July 20, 2015

Back in the Rockport State Recreational Area forest lies over 12 relatively un-explored Devonian Era sinkhole karst features. These sinkholes are filled with water and might contain clues as to what has occurred during the last Holocene as well as the possibility of some interesting man-made and natural artifacts that may be preserved at the bottom of these sinks. Furthermore, understanding the geological nature of these sinkholes may also shine some more light on current theories or inspire a different theory with clues that these sinkholes might hold secret at the bottom including the possibility of dormant cave passage.

Previous diver observations and aerial photos have pointed out a ledge of sorts leading to an unknown place in the sinkhole, a thick layer of suspended material, and the understanding of the geological makeup of the regional area have left questions as to what is at the bottom and how these karst features might have been formed.

Although these sinkholes are inspiring to consider that submerged passage might exist, I question if the passage has not already been filled by glacial till and other deposits from the last Holocene or that the strata is impermiable for water to flow faster than a drip at a time. The Traverse group, and the Rockport Quarry give me a suspicion that there is a possibility of some type of dormant submerged passage yet with the veins of gypsum and other minerals which are thought to be in the Detroit group bedrock, the dissolution and the evacuation of these minerals are believed to have created underground karst cavities where limestone and shale collapse onto itself from the surface and a subsequently creating a tube of impassable breakdown rubble leading down vertically like filling a vertical pipe with rocks leaving a circular shape at its surface…or is impassable?

A confirmation of this phenomenon with certified cave divers will strengthen this belief among geologists and confirm what is actually at the bottom of these sinkholes. No Doubt, this will bring some closure to the mystery of what is at the bottom of the big sink and other sinks in the area, but there is a optimistic possibility that other artifacts and materials can be realized for further study including human made artifacts.

Finally, researching these sinkholes might also be able to help the community understand what is happening underground which might be able to help predict and understand future sinkhole openings and watershed hydrology.

For over 150 years now, Thunder Bay and Presque Isle have had an active shipping history with mariners finding the regional area rather difficult to navigate which has led to some of the most historic and well preserved shipwrecks on the bottom of Lake Huron. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary and NOAA have teamed up to preserve these shipwrecks which has become quite the location to dive and one of the best diving destinations on the planet to visit in-tact shipwrecks like the shipwreck of the Cornelia Windiate and the shipwreck of the Defiance. To learn more about shipwreck diving reach out to thunder bay scuba at www.tbscuba.com and ask to speak to Joe about the shipwreck diving opportunities. Just off into the woods of Rockport is an old quarry that has been shut down for years but has a lot of fossil artifacts that are embedded into the limestone. One can find corrals, sponges, and isopod fossils in the limestone. Some of these fossils are abundant as they lay scattered on the quarry floor.

GEOLOGY

http://www.glerl.noaa.gov/pubs/fulltext/2009/20090012.pdf

DIVE PROJECT PLAN:

The main focal point of this project will be the “Big Sink”. Based on my previous visit to these sinkholes the past year and from our research we conducted with expert judgment, the Big Sink will be the primary focus and camp 1 will be set up on the flat top surface near the trail.

Separate dive operations will be planned and prepared for at camp 1.

Our Primary dive will be conducted in the Big Sink and with the first dive to be an initial high level overview exploration of the bottom of the sinkhole itself. A possible survey might be conducted but at the time of this observation dive, we decided to observe the sink.

A dive flag will be place at the focus point on the surface of the big sink where the 90ft water depth was indicated and where the deepest point of the sink is thought to be. Another dive flag will be considered at the cliff ledge karst feature which is at an estimated depth of 40ft.

The dive group will decide before the dive to either tie off a reel or make their initial descent into the sink or utilize attachment points on the anchor and run reels from the anchor at depth. Divers will pay attention to the tree obstruction and the thick “haze layer” at an unknown depth.

The bottom of the sink has been reported to be a rock bottom so from the anchor point at depth, divers will proceed with a search that will be pre-determined at the pre dive plan and will proceed to follow the search protocol until obstructions exceed the divers risk threshold, or the sink has been initially “groomed”.

If a passage has been discovered, the diver will deploy a surface buoy to mark the location of the cave passage. Diver can than proceed to push the passage.

We initially had a dynamic operation planned with multiple camps and cave divers but we minimized the efforts to just three people, one on the surface, one conductin a primary search and another for overview and obvservation. Certified Cave and Technical Cave Divers, Adam Haydock, Chris Parks, and Mike Apke brought diving gear to the big sink in the forest to perform the initial checkout dive. I stayed top side while Mike and Chris prepared for low visibility, tree obstructions, and the possibility of discovering new cave passage among other anomalies underwater.

The divers entered the water and began the initial search to report back what they found at the bottom while I provided surface support and observed the sink from the top side. Around the sink I noticed small fissure cracks that traced around the sink leading me to believe that the rock is slowly sliding down into the sink itself from ice, snowmelt, and rain fall.

Around the sink the divers reported that the visibility was around 20ft. from 0ft. of depth at the surface to around 25-40ft. of depth. Two types of plant growth at the bottom and reports of bass, possibly small mouth bass were reported swimming about.

The composition appeared to be a silty mud composition which was consistent around the outer circumference of the karst feature. The bottom terrain was trending downward on a 25 to a 35 degree angle until it reached a vertical rock wall in the middle of the sink.

A 90 degree vertical wall surrounding the inner sink contour dropped down to a depth from 40ft to 59ft. The depth of 59 feet was the max depth that the divers reported in the “Big Sink” and at this depth the water became significantly colder. The visibility diminished form 25ft down to 3-5ft. There was a organic sediment cloud inside this inner sink that created the diminished visibility which is assumed to have been kept in place by the vertical limestone wall.

At the bottom of the sink at max depth, Chris reported that there was a layer of thick silt which was compacted and a continued push to go deeper into this silt was impossible.

There were a number of trees that were reported to be upright with the tops of the trees pointing back up the slope which gives more evidence to the land sliding into the sink and the trees merely falling to the side and pointing back up towards the slope as they continued to slide down to the bottom of the sink.

I vectored the divers to explore triangular sections of the middle of the sink and they “groomed the garden” by going back and forth up and down the sink which only rendered similar results of a trending slope to a vertical face and the same reported depths, temperature, and bottom composition. There were no passages to be found which is what I suspected.
This all goes with the theory that the sinkholes are more like” flooded quarries “ that were plugged by a composition which might include some glacial till from the last Holocene and other material that may be sliding into the sink. Rain and ground water rises, collects and keeps itself in these karst kettles which might preserve the cold water and the slowly decaying organic material at the bottom which is surrounded by a tubular limestone wall. The brittle limestone and shale layer appears to not be sufficient enough to sustain passage like St. Genevieve limestone that can be found further south in Indiana.
Based on the research I have done and the expert judgment I have received, my conclusion is that these sinkholes are subsurface tubular-like rubble collapses where the gypsum and sulfate layers in the Detroit Group strata have dissolved away therefore creating a set of chambers that have collapsed on themselves forcing the limestone and shale layers to subsequently collapse from the surface. There are around 13 of these sink holes in the area and this one was the most accessible given the time that we had to dive. Mike mentioned that he could smell a faint scent of sulfur on him but we could not confirm or smell any sulfur odor.

The sinkholes out in lake Huron are fascinating in itself as we have been out to visit them on multiple occasions and had a change to observe the vents that spring out sulfur, dissolved gypsum, and other sulfide materials. This cold spring water it thought to be coming form the Detroit group almost 800 ft. under ground and appears to trend into the Rockport preserve where these inland sinkholes are located. The underwater springs have a layer of bright yellow sulfur that is crystal clear which creates a chemocline that fish dare not pass.

There are also cyanobacteria mats of extremophile organisms that thrive off of these chemicals and gives clues to not only what is happening underground, but what has happened during the Devonian era and even with a possible link to how extra terrestrial organism might exist on other planets.

Here is more information regarding the middle island sinkholes: http://adamhaydock.blogspot.com/2014/06/middle-island-underwater-sink-resurgence.html

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SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST

July 06, 2015

Shawnee National Forest

The Shawnee National Forest is a the biggest woods located on the southern sandstone escarpment of Illinois. 320 Million years ago there was an ocean that covered the lands we see today in the Shawnee but only folded mud and sandstone strata layers are left from that time. We drove down to the Garden Of the Gods to view the sandstone spires that stood tall over the ridge in the Shawnee.

Garden Of the Gods Shawnee National Forest

It was pretty interesting to see the patterns in the rock and to see out into the vista where trees lined the rolling hills and eagles flew into the heated updrafts from the valley below. We hiked around in the 90 degree heat with the humidity soaking the air like a Puerto Rican rain forest.

Garden of the Gods Shawnee National Forest

It was nice to get away from the city and to spend some time with as we needed a quick escape.

Garden of the Gods Shawnee National Forest

After Garden of the Gods we hiked on the backpack trail of the Shawnee and it was pretty nice for Illinois standards!

Garden of the Gods Shawnee National Forest

The pine and maple trees were in abundance and we followed a ridge that took us to come more remote overlooks which was a lot nicer than the audience that the Garden of the Gods had parading through.

We enjoyed the hike around as it looped back towards where we started. Even though it was a few miles, we finished it in a short period of time and found ourselves back a the car wondering what to do. We decided on going to Bell Spring Recreational Area which was a half hour drive from where we were.

Bell Smith Spring, Shawnee National Forest

We arrived at Bell Smith spring to see the crowds starting to leave the swimming hole that they were in so we went on a hike around the property to check out what they were doing as well as what other features were on the property. We saw a natural arch trail ad the water looked like it had a bluish tint which reminded us of cave water so I wonder where all of this water is coming from.

Mushroom in Bell Smith Spring Shawnee National Forest

After Bell Smith Springs we figured we would drive up to The Little Grand Canyon Section and head home since we saw a lot of what we set out to see anyway so instead of camping for the night we headed up to Little Grand Canyon next.

sandstone cavern in the Shawnee Wilderness

It took almost an hour and a half to get up there and we got up there in time for another hour before the sun started to go down. The Little Grand Canyon section of the Shawnee National Forest is interesting as it is a gorge and prob the biggest one for Illinois standards.

Little Grand Canyon hike, Shawnee National Forest

I took off to the bottom of the canyon to get a view of this place.

Little Grand Canyon Hike, Shawnee National Forest

There was a family that had emotional ranges form yelling to crying which took a bit away from the sound quality that the canyon has but this place is a must visit if you are in the area and do not have much else to do.

Little Grand Canyon, Shawnee National Forest

Unfortunately, the trail was flooded so I was not able to complete a loop so I just ran back up the trail and we headed back to Chicago. It was a lot of driving but it was nice to get away for a day.

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ADAM HAYDOCK

SHIPWRECK OF THE KYLE SPANGLER

SHIPWRECK OF THE S.S. FLORIDA

ROCKPORT AND PRESQUE ISLE INLAND SINKHOLES

SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST

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ADAM HAYDOCK

SHIPWRECK OF THE KYLE SPANGLER

SHIPWRECK OF THE S.S. FLORIDA

ROCKPORT AND PRESQUE ISLE INLAND SINKHOLES

SHAWNEE NATIONAL FOREST

PURCHASE NFTS HERE:

Welcome to my personal writings:

EVEN FURTHER PHOTOGRAPHY WEBSITE

SEARCH THIS BLOG

recent posts

Blog Archive

VIEWS

Contact Form

ADAM HAYDOCK

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