Red Lake (Croatian: Crveno jezero) is a sinkhole containing a karst lake near the city of Imotski, Croatia. It is known for its numerous caves and remarkably high cliffs, reaching over 241 meters above normal water level and continuing below the water level. The total explored depth of this sinkhole is approximately 530 meters with a volume of roughly 25–30 million cubic meters, thus it is the third largest sinkhole in the world. Water drains out of the basin through underground waterways that descend below the level of the lake floor. The deepest known point of the lake is 4 meters below sea level.
The sinkhole is named after the reddish-brown colour of the surrounding cliffs, coloured by iron oxides.
Like the nearby Blue Lake, it is presumed that the lake emerged when the ceiling of a large cave hall collapsed.
The lake is inhabited with endemic and endangered spotted minnow (Delminichthys adspersus) and Imotski spined loach (Cobitis illyrica). In the dry period of the year, this fish can be occasionally seen in surrounding springs, rivers and lakes, suggesting that there is an underground connection between Red Lake and other water bodies.
At the 13th International Congress of Speleology in 2001, new findings were revealed. An inflow cave-shaped canal that measured approximately 30 × 30 meters was discovered in the eastern part of the lake at a depth of 175 meters.
On May 6, 2017, French cave diver Frederic Swierczynski dived into the Red Lake and became the first man in history to set foot on the bottom. The dive lasted four hours, and the Frenchman touched the bottom at 245 meters.
A large part of the western wall of the lake collapsed due to the earthquake near Imotski on December 29, 1942, intensity in the epicenter of the IX° MCS scale and magnitude 6.2.
Crveno jezero je vrtača koja sadrži kraško jezero u blizini grada Imotskog u Hrvatskoj. Poznato je po brojnim špiljama i izuzetno visokim liticama koje dosežu preko 241 metar iznad normalne razine vode i nastavljaju se ispod razine vode. Ukupna istražena dubina ove vrtače je približno 530 metara s volumenom od otprilike 25-30 milijuna kubičnih metara, stoga je treća najveća vrtača na svijetu. Voda otječe iz bazena kroz podzemne vodotokove koji se spuštaju ispod razine jezerskog dna. Najdublja poznata točka jezera je 4 metra ispod razine mora.
Vrtača je dobila ime po crvenkasto-smeđoj boji okolnih litica obojenih željeznim oksidima.
Kao i obližnje Modro jezero, pretpostavlja se da je jezero nastalo urušavanjem stropa velike špiljske dvorane.
Jezero je naseljeno endemskim i ugroženim pjegavim gavcem (Delminichthys adspersus) i imotskim vijunom (Cobitis illyrica). U sušnom razdoblju godine ova se riba povremeno može vidjeti u okolnim izvorima, rijekama i jezerima, što govori o podzemnoj vezi između Crvenog jezera i drugih vodenih tijela.
Na 13. međunarodnom kongresu speleologije 2001. godine otkrivena su nova saznanja. U istočnom dijelu jezera na dubini od 175 metara otkriven je ulazni kanal u obliku špilje, dimenzija oko 30 × 30 metara.
Francuski speleoronilac Frederic Swierczynski 6. svibnja 2017. je zaronio u Crveno jezero i postao prvi čovjek u povijesti koji je kročio na dno. Zaron je trajao četiri sata, a Francuz je dno dotaknuo na 245 metara.
Velik dio zapadnog zida jezera se urušio zbog potresa u blizini Imotskog 29. prosinca 1942. intenziteta u epicentru IX° MCS ljestvice i magnitude 6,2.
Loading contexts...