A recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report detailed the findings of a voyage to a volcanic ridge near Portugal. The report is titled The Case of the Mysterious Holes on the Seafloor, and states, “while the holes look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around them suggest they had been excavated.” The voyagers couldn’t determine whether the holes were connected or not.
The voyage is formally known as the Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition, which is intended to map out the coral reefs near Portugal. The ridge mentioned is the region’s volcanic ridges and rift zones.
There was a total of 12 holes with each hole being four inches apart, and each hole had a depth of about 1.6 miles. While it seems to be a man-made hole, it’s likely caused by some creature, as one week later, four more lines of holes were found 300 miles away. As such, the holes were labeled “lebensspuren,” which is German for “life traces.”
A similar discovery was made two decades ago, which similarly had no explanation for the holes. Dr. Vecchione was one of the scientists involved in the study and said, “there is something important going on there and we don’t know what it is. This highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there.”
The first hypothesis was that an organism living on the seafloor made the holes, but no one has heard of any sort of creature capable of digging holes that long. Since then, dozens of ideas have been circulating in the NOAA’s post like escaping gas, underwater human craft digging for water, ants, aliens, or starfish doing cartwheels.
One similar mystery was the “yellow brick road” near an underwater mountain in Hawaii. Scientists theorized that the heating and cooling of the seafloor through volcanic eruptions made the path.
On the other hand, the holes don’t have a concrete explanation yet. Vecchione has written a paper which describes how the holes appear to have been excavated from the top or pierced up from the bottom, which suggests the holes being used as a breathing device, like a snorkel of some sorts.
The voyage is still ongoing, and the third and final Voyage to the Ridge could bring some useful insight as to the creation of these mysterious holes.
Sources:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/mysterious-holes-found-on-ocean-floor-have-noaa-scientists-stumped/1225544
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
https://www.livescience.com/perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor
https://www.greenmatters.com/news/ocean-floor-holes
The voyage is formally known as the Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition, which is intended to map out the coral reefs near Portugal. The ridge mentioned is the region’s volcanic ridges and rift zones.
There was a total of 12 holes with each hole being four inches apart, and each hole had a depth of about 1.6 miles. While it seems to be a man-made hole, it’s likely caused by some creature, as one week later, four more lines of holes were found 300 miles away. As such, the holes were labeled “lebensspuren,” which is German for “life traces.”
A similar discovery was made two decades ago, which similarly had no explanation for the holes. Dr. Vecchione was one of the scientists involved in the study and said, “there is something important going on there and we don’t know what it is. This highlights the fact that there are still mysteries out there.”
The first hypothesis was that an organism living on the seafloor made the holes, but no one has heard of any sort of creature capable of digging holes that long. Since then, dozens of ideas have been circulating in the NOAA’s post like escaping gas, underwater human craft digging for water, ants, aliens, or starfish doing cartwheels.
One similar mystery was the “yellow brick road” near an underwater mountain in Hawaii. Scientists theorized that the heating and cooling of the seafloor through volcanic eruptions made the path.
On the other hand, the holes don’t have a concrete explanation yet. Vecchione has written a paper which describes how the holes appear to have been excavated from the top or pierced up from the bottom, which suggests the holes being used as a breathing device, like a snorkel of some sorts.
The voyage is still ongoing, and the third and final Voyage to the Ridge could bring some useful insight as to the creation of these mysterious holes.
Sources:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/mysterious-holes-found-on-ocean-floor-have-noaa-scientists-stumped/1225544
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
https://www.livescience.com/perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor
https://www.greenmatters.com/news/ocean-floor-holes