Earth and Environment Atlas

How The Planet Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Geological Formations

Cenote Angelita

Erosional and Karst Formations

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Cenote Angelita lies inland from Tulum on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, a deep, roughly cylindrical karst sinkhole formed by the collapse of limestone into an underlying flooded cavern. Its distinguishing feature sits at a depth of roughly thirty meters, where a dense layer of hydrogen sulfide, produced by decomposing leaf litter and organic matter washed in from the surrounding jungle, forms a cloudy, sharply defined band suspended between the fresh water above and denser saline water below. From within the cenote this layer resembles a river or mist flowing along the cave floor, complete with the appearance of submerged tree trunks and branches around its edges, an illusion that gives the site its name, meaning Little Angel. This entity documents Cenote Angelita specifically as a geological formation, a karst sinkhole known for the visually distinctive hydrogen sulfide layer suspended partway down its flooded shaft.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.