The underwater springs are located half a mile southwest of the village of Korfos in the prefecture of Corinth. The cave was accidentally discovered by a shepherd when he noticed that his animals drank water from the sea.
Its entrance is 5m below sea level with a narrow opening about 10m wide. At this point, the phenomenon of mixing fresh and seawater becomes very intense with the creation of a sloping layer and, at the same time, extreme resistance for the diver to enter the interior of the cave.
As soon as the diver passes inside the cave, the water becomes crystalline and clearly distinguishes the two directions you have to choose.
The drowned part of the cave essentially consists of 2 large rooms of exceptional natural beauty with a strong presence of stalagmites and other cave themes. This makes it clear that this system started to be created when the sea level was much lower. After the last glacial period, the cave was flooded, and the aquifer rose, making this unique phenomenon.
There are several pockets with air in the cave, and in the largest of them, it is evident that a part of it has fallen.
The caves have countless living organisms inside them. They are essentially museums of biology and natural history for the geomorphological evolution of an area much wider than the cave’s limited space.
In this particular chamber, the diver has the opportunity to emerge. After depositing his equipment to go out to the land part of the cave, which has remained untouched in time and geologically continues to evolve.
A steep uphill that needs special attention leads to a well-hidden room that few human eyes have seen over the millennia.
The images are shocking, thin Crystal needles creations of water passing through invisible holes in the rock spring from end to end on the cave’s roof. A series of curtains on the walls of the room, several meters in diameter, complete the puzzle of a powerful evolving geological system.
The length of the cave is about 90m with the maximum depth reaching 14m. The water temperature ranges from 13 to 16 degrees Celsius all year round.
In 2008 HCMR (Hellenic Center of Maritime Research) included the underwater springs of Korfos Corinth in an ambitious program of study and research of corresponding springs throughout Greece freshwater glaciers in Stoupa, Messinia, Leonidio Kynouria, and others. This research’s ultimate goal was to determine if it was possible to further exploit them, with the essential purpose of irrigating and supplying local communities or meeting a large part of their needs from these sources.
After extensive studies, HCMR discovered that the freshwater that springs from the cave has a high salinity content, with a correspondingly high desalination cost, which was deemed unusable. After installing special sensors, HCMR estimated that 30,000 cubic meters of water per day flow into the open sea!
Research – Text editing: Andreas Andrikopoulos