Survey project
Quintana Roo Speleological Survey
A survey archive, created in 1990, that compiles confirmed survey data for the underwater and dry caves of Quintana Roo, Mexico, and publishes the standard lists of long and deep underwater caves in the state.
The Quintana Roo Speleological Survey describes itself as supporting the safe exploration, survey and cartography of the underwater and dry caves of Quintana Roo. It was created in 1990 and keeps an archive of survey data contributed by many independent exploration teams. On its home page (last updated 2025-01-29) it reports confirmed data for more than 412 underwater caves and cave systems, totalling 1,736.7 km of underwater passage, plus 359.7 km of surveyed dry passage. It also archives water-chemistry, biological, archaeological and environmental observations [1].
QRSS is best known to divers for its ranked list of long underwater caves, in which each system's length, depth, number of cenotes and reporting team are given with a report date; in the January 2025 list Sistema Ox Bel Ha and Sistema Sac Actun hold the top two places [2]. The survey states that it does not reveal cave locations or where unexplored leads are, and it publishes a conservation code that treats diving in the region's caves as a privilege granted by landowners, asks divers not to collect fauna without a federal permit, and describes the threat that the predatory Mexican tetra poses to cave-adapted animals [1][3].
Further reading
A short history of underwater cave exploration: dated milestones
Archaeology and palaeontology in underwater caves
Conservation, landowners and responsible access
Groundwater, haloclines and water quality in flooded caves
How underwater caves are surveyed and studied
How underwater caves form: karst, dissolution and drowned passages
Life in flooded caves: stygofauna, remipedes and the diver's footprint
Threats to underwater caves today, and how they are protected
Cave Areas of Quintana Roo (QRSS cave footprint map) ↗
Cave development on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico ↗
Late Pleistocene Human Skeleton and mtDNA Link Paleoamericans and Modern Native Americans ↗
Long Underwater Caves in Quintana Roo (QRSS list) ↗
Quintana Roo Speleological Survey (QRSS) ↗
Review: The Yucatán Peninsula karst aquifer, Mexico ↗
Every fact on this page, with its source (5)
| Fact | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| QRSS was created in 1990. | Verified | [1] |
| QRSS reports confirmed survey data for more than 412 underwater caves and cave systems totalling 1,736.7 km of underwater passage, and 359.7 km of dry passage.Figures from the home page last updated 2025-01-29; totals change as surveys are added. | Verified | [1] |
| QRSS states that it does not reveal cave locations or where going leads might be found. | Verified | [1] |
| In the QRSS list updated 2025-01-19, Sistema Ox Bel Ha is first and Sistema Sac Actun second among Quintana Roo's long underwater caves.Lengths are reported by the exploring teams and dated individually in the list. | Verified | [2] |
| QRSS describes diving in Quintana Roo caves as a privilege extended by landowners and says collecting biological samples without a Mexican federal collection permit is illegal. | Verified | [3] |
Verified: stated by an official or primary source we opened. Reported: from a secondary source only. Sources conflict: the note gives both versions. May be out of date: the newest source we found is old.
Written in our own words from the sources above. Report a correction