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Mysterious ‘Jacob’s Well’ still attracts thrill seekers, despite deaths

It is in the nature of humans to try and be secure, self-preservation being a cardinal drive. It can lead to some amazing feats such as lifting otherwise impossible weights or literally leaping over what look like insurmountable odds. We all want to live and to be safe. At least that was the theory. As it turns out, evolutionary biologists missed something while investigating and composing their self-preservation theory. The comparatively small, yet seemingly growing, subset of humanity that have become addicted to danger or at least the endorphine rush that can come from it. What are popularly known as “thrill seekers”. The sort of people who first conceived of road racing, bungee Jumping and B.A.S.E jumping. Not all thrills are quite so artificial however and there is still plenty of life threatening danger to be offered by the natural world. Along with K2 (a.k.a. “The Death Mountain”) and Lake Kivu (a.k.a. “The Lake of Death”), another naturally occurring wonder with a surprisingly high body count is Jacob’s Well an hour southwest of Austin TX.

Like a hole in the ground

First discovered by pasty Europeans in the 1850s and known to native populations long before that, Jacob’s Well is a swimming hole, similar to many others in the area except for one odd feature. It does not seem to end. And when it does, as all things must, it is at an entrance to a massive labyrinth of underwater caves.

Fun and danger

Mostly used by locals who know well enough what they are doing, there are two ways in which Jacob’s Well can be dangerous to the unknowing or the unwary. First of all it is not technically a hole in the ground, being a naturally occurring dip in the limestone floor of an otherwise solid and rather shallow body of crystal clear water. How exactly the ‘well’ got there has been a matter of debate and conjecture among geologists for decades. Not that this has stopped people from jumping in, no sir!

Every summer numerous folks converge on the little spot of Texas weirdness, one of many, to escape the oppressive Texas heat, test themselves and tempt fate by jumping off the nearby cliffs and just hoping like anything that they manage to hit in the middle of the ‘Well’. They do this despite the countless serious injuries sustained by those who miscalculated, instead hitting the solid limestone side at high speed. Imagine jumping off a high diving board into the kiddie pool. Though danger is part of the fun right?

Watery graves

Nasty as a pair of shattered ankles might be, this fate is fairly minor compared to that of those who try to explore the caves at the bottom. Fascinating and beautiful according to those who have seen them, such as veteran diver Don Dibble, they are also likely to be the last thing you will ever see if you try to go down there exploring. Not only are the caves expansive and difficult to effectively navigate at the best of times, there is also a large amount of settlement build up, making it difficult to see clearly. Then, of course if the size of the cave network and the compromised vision do not get you, the disorienting if not hallucinogenic effects of nitrogen necrosis, which occurs whenever divers use compressed air tanks at 100 feet deep or more, will.



This post first appeared on TechDigg, please read the originial post: here

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