Map of Oven Rock Cave: Brian Kakuk, 1995

Cave Type: Inland, anchialine blue hole - lens based cave

Location: Great Guana Cay, Bahamas

Length: 300 m plus

Maximum depth: 22 m

Description: The entrance to Oven Rock Cave is situated in a hillside on Great Guana Cay. From the 15 m wide, 2.5 m high entrance, a 40 m long dry chamber descends over breakdown to a tidal anchialine lake. The 1.5 m deep lake extends around the sides and rear of this chamber. An underwater room trending off from the lake is well decorated with large stalagmites at depths to 9 m.

Oven Rock Cave: entrance chamber

A second room, located on the far side of the first, has a small air bell in the ceiling at one end but dips to 17 m depth at the far extreme. From this point, a collapsed-floored passage is followed by a low bedding plane passage reaching depths to 22 m.

	Oven Rock Cave: entrance pool

Hydrology: Surface salinity in the lake is 35 g/l.

Diving Mode: Standard cave scuba

History: First recorded diving exploration by Tom Iliffe and John Pohlman in May 1993.

Fauna: Shrimp (Barbouria cubensis), copepods, ostracods, amphipods, remipedes.

Conservation status: This cave has currently been proposed to the Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as a marine reserve.

References:

Contributor: Brian Kakuk, Caribbean Marine Research Center, Bahamas

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