CubaPLUS Magazine

In the northeastern municipality of Gibara, Holguín province, is the natural enclave of Tanque azul (Blue Tank), an amazing underground cavern turned into a kind of swimming pool due to a geological event.

That cave, flooded by water, suffered the collapse of its "roof", for which its contents were exposed. Scientists call this type of formation a dolinao cenote and consider Tanque Azul the largest of its kind discovered so far on the island.

For this reason, a file has been prepared that proposes it as a member of the list of National Monuments of natural origin.. It has a spatial extension that covers 30 meters long, 15 meters wide, while its depth reaches seven meters. The quality of the accumulated water gives it a crystalline and bluish appearance, like a beautiful mirror, which suggested its name to the locals.

At the bottom of that flooded spelunch there is an abundant and varied presence of speleothegmas, stalactites, stalagmites, columns, mantles, which are carbonate formations of remarkable beauty. Nature carved out two main access roads, one heading east and the other west.

However, its underground passages intercommunicate, something that adds expectations and complexities to the exploration of the enigmas of this amazing cavern or pool. The site, where the cenote that gives access to Tanque Azul is located, is a recently emerged coastal plain, in which calcareous processes predominate. There abound, because the so-called superficial karst, like Lapies or dog teeth, casimbas and cenotes, the subterranean karst, sprouted in labyrinths with drainage to the sea.

The semi-arid tropical climate of the area has had a great influence on the characteristics of the landscape, dominated by rocky areas under a thermal regime with an average annual temperature of 24⁰C to 25⁰C in winter and 27⁰C in summer. Despite the fact that agricultural activity is reduced, there are plant formations adapted to the environment and there is a great diversity of species in the environment, such as trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, with xeromorphic scrub being the most abundant.

The semi-deciduous forests are well represented, as well as some timber. The mollusks, crustaceans and fish as native species are notable, among which terrestrial ones are considered threatened due to their lack of mobility and the reduced space of their habitat.

Strange and fascinating laboratory of life. But the enigmas of TanqueAzul appeal to lovers of virgin nature, wild landscapes and researchers of the origin of this beautiful archipelago, the largest in the Caribbean.