Posted by Ross-O on January 24, 2004 at 19:04:13:
In Reply to: Dive report; New Caissons posted by Max Bottomtime on January 24, 2004 at 15:54:49:
I must point out that what Phil writes above is our current THEORY based on a lot of research that Brian and I have done over the last several weeks.
Local lore has it that the caissons were used in the construction of the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Beth, my wife and a bridge engineer, approached several of the senior designers of the VT Bridge and quizzed them on the structures Phil and I described. The engineers didn't agree that the structure we describe was part of the bridge construction.
The USGS surveys were done to provide data to the USEPA about several dump sites off the SoCal coast. LA-2 is the site about 4 miles South of Angels Gate. We found several references to "mussel shells and caisson debris" from the dismantled 4H rigs being dumped in LA-2. The rough height and diameter measurements documented in the study match the physical dims that we measured underwater today. Diving with a 100' tape reel was pretty interesting :-)
The area north of LA-2 is really interesting. We've found about 5 other juicy looking spots on the sounder that we're yet to dive. Several guys on our team dove a very interesting spot in 210 fsw last week but more research is needed before we can talk about it intelligently. Yes - there is brass on it :-)
Regardless of what DIR says, computers and diving go very well together.
Cheers,
Ross-O