Provence
Fontaine de Vaucluse
Closed to divers
Diving banned by the municipality of Fontaine-de-Vaucluse.
- Max depth315 m
- CertificationFull cave
- SpecialExperienced divers
Diving and fills
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Fills nearby
- Fill stationPlongée Tek MarseilleFills diluent (air, trimix) and O₂ for its own CCR and trimix students; fills for visitors: askRoute ↗
Now at Fontaine de Vaucluse
What it looks like
All 1 videos and posts
Videos and posts
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Other people's footage, not advice: how someone else dives here says nothing about what suits your team. Dive within your training.
The dive
A karst spring and the source of the Sorgue, with water at a constant 12.5–13 °C. It delivers 630–700 million m³ a year, up to 110 m³/s in flood (other sources: 90 m³/s).
Profile and sections
A karst spring and the source of the Sorgue, with water at a constant 12.5–13 °C. It delivers 630–700 million m³ a year, up to 110 m³/s in flood (other sources: 90 m³/s). The spring is the only outlet of an underground basin of ~1,100–1,200 km² (Mont Ventoux, the Monts de Vaucluse, the Montagne de Lure).
In 1946 Jacques Cousteau and a fellow diver nearly died here when their air was contaminated with carbon monoxide. Dives by the Société spéléologique de Fontaine-de-Vaucluse recovered more than 1,600 ancient coins (1st century BC to 5th century AD). The deep explorations after the diving ban used robots.
Practical: since 1974 the commune has banned diving in the spring.
- Depth and profile
- Shaft to -315 m (the SSFV's Spélénaute robot, 1989; -308 m relative to the gauge zero), before that -305 m (Modexa robot, 1985) · divers: -153 m (Claude Touloumdjian, 1981), -205 m (Jochen Hasenmayer, 1983), -250 m (Pascal Bernabé, 1997) · development ~400 m · historic dives: -23 m (1878, hard-hat diver), -27.5 m (1938), -46 m (1946), -74 m (~1955), -90 m (1967)
- Configuration
- Not applicable: diving banned.
- DPV: Not DPV-suitable
- Diving banned.
Who can dive where
- At least Full cave
- Configurations: Backmount / twinset / Sidemount / CCR / Small cylinders / no-mount (speleo sumps)
- Goes down to 315 m (trimix or deco may be needed)
- Experienced divers only
This is how the planner decides who in your team may dive this cave. Rules your own trip adds (organizer, a mail, the AI) show with your trip.
How to get there
On foot from the village along the Sorgue to the spring pool; the access path has been partly closed since March 2024 because of rockfall.
Around Fontaine de Vaucluse
Fills1 fill station · 72 km
Plongée Tek Marseille
Port de la Pointe Rouge, 13008 Marseille
Fills diluent (air, trimix) and O₂ for its own CCR and trimix students; fills for visitors: ask
Ask
Tech centre in Pointe Rouge harbour, the departure point for the Calanques and the Riou archipelago. CCR courses on rEvo, JJ-CCR, Shark, Triton and AP Inspiration; CCR trimix to -70 m. CCR and scooter rental: ask. Also +33 6 72 05 50 16.
Caves nearby1 within 34 km
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