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Cave diving includes all of the hazards present in open-water scuba diving, and adds many new hazards:

·         Caves have ceilings, which prevent divers from making direct ascents to the surface in emergencies. Instead, a cave diver must travel all the way back to the cave entrance before being able to ascend to the water's surface.

·         Caves are dark. While a less-intensive kind of diving called cavern diving does not take divers beyond the outermost part of the cave reached by natural light, true cave diving can involve penetrations of many thousands of feet, well beyond the reach of sunlight. The level of darkness experienced in such places is described as clinical darkness, meaning that it is impossible to see without an artificial form of light.

·         Caves can carry strong water currents. Most caves emerge on the surface as either springs or siphons. Springs have out flowing currents, where water is coming up out of the Earth and flowing out across the land's surface. Siphons have inflowing currents where, for example, an above-ground river is going underground. Some caves are complex and have some tunnels with out flowing currents, and other tunnels with inflowing currents. If currents are not properly managed, they can cause serious problems for the diver.

·         Caves often contain sand, mud, clay, silt, or other sediment that can reduce underwater visibility to zero in seconds when carelessly stirred up.

·         Caves can contain tight passages, which require special techniques to navigate.

·         Caves can visually confuse the diver. It is not difficult to become lost in a complex cave, which is why all cave divers use guidelines to keep track of the way out.

·         Caves can present environmental dangers like cave-ins.

Click here to read about recreational scuba diving: Cave Diving and  Safety  – or –

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Reference material for this scuba diving related informational article: wikipedia – the free online encyclopedia, scuba diving category

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