| Karst Underwater Research | |
| Logo Alt: | KUR organization logo.png |
| Type: | Registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization |
| Key People: | Brett Hemphill, Director & President Andrew Pitkin, Director Michael Poucher,Director Charlie Roberson, Director |
| Foundation: | 1996 |
| Location: | Dade City, Florida, United States |
| Homepage: | www.karstunderwater.org |
Karst Underwater Research (KUR) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that specializes in the research and documentation of karst aquifers and their corresponding surface features. KUR members perform a variety of scientific processes, including mapping and cartography, radio location, photography, videography, YSI water analysis and sampling.
In 2007, KUR found that Weeki Wachee Springs is the deepest known naturally formed spring in the United States at a depth of .[1]
From May 22 until August 30, 2007, the discharge at Weeki Wachee Spring dropped to a level that allowed for cave divers to gain effective entry into the cave system at the head spring. The KUR team explored approximately in multiple passages at an average depth of 265 ffw (feet fresh-water) with a maximum depth of 407 ffw.[2]
In 2013, KUR divers connected Weeki Wachee Spring to a smaller spring on the same property, Twin Dees (Little) Spring, which allowed further exploration of the whole system from there, as flow at the main Weeki Wachee Spring entrance has been too high for divers to enter there since 2012.
In January 2013, KUR divers found that Phantom Spring is the deepest underwater cave yet measured in the United States at a depth of .[3]
Working with Dr. Tom Iliffe of the Texas A&M University Marine Biology Department, the Phantom Spring project was started in 2012 with the goals of researching the invertebrate species and their habitat within the cave, and exploring the geography of the cave system to understand the environmental impact of the surrounding area. In 2012 biological finding were made and exploration of the system continued. In 2013, a section which led to the deepest known underwater cave in the country were discovered .[4]
On Friday, November 4, 2016, KUR divers Jonathan Bernot and Charlie Roberson established a new world record of penetration from air in an underwater cave at Cathedral Canyon.[5] Cathedral is the most upstream karst window in the Falmouth-Cathedral cave system, which is located in Suwannee County, Florida. This dive surpasses the previous record of set in 2008 by Jarrod Jablonski and Casey McKinlay at Wakulla Springs.