Scientists have recently discovered a mysterious orientation of holes at the bottom of the ocean, and they don’t have an explanation.
The discovery was made on July 24 when the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) sent down the Okeanos Explorer vessel, an unmanned submarine, to explore the depths of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At about a depth of 1.6 miles, explorers saw what seems to be a straight line of evenly spaced holes, each around finger widths big.
This isn’t the first time these holes have been noticed, as in 2004, a marine scientist also found a similar occurrence in around the same area.
The NOAA stated on Facebook, “While they look almost human-made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by…something.”
A top commenter for the post suggests that these holes were caused by “a minor crack in the surface which allowed gasses to escape.,” he also states that it’s “somewhat similar to sand bursts that appear during earthquakes.”
However, Mr. Vecchione and Odd Aksel Bergstad, former researchers at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, think differently. They proposed that there was some sort of organism that crawled on the seabed and punctured the sand from below the surface.
To check if it is in fact an organism making these holes, the Okeanos Explorer vessel has taken a sample of sand from the holes to see if there were any living organisms.
The discovery was made on July 24 when the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) sent down the Okeanos Explorer vessel, an unmanned submarine, to explore the depths of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. At about a depth of 1.6 miles, explorers saw what seems to be a straight line of evenly spaced holes, each around finger widths big.
This isn’t the first time these holes have been noticed, as in 2004, a marine scientist also found a similar occurrence in around the same area.
The NOAA stated on Facebook, “While they look almost human-made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by…something.”
A top commenter for the post suggests that these holes were caused by “a minor crack in the surface which allowed gasses to escape.,” he also states that it’s “somewhat similar to sand bursts that appear during earthquakes.”
However, Mr. Vecchione and Odd Aksel Bergstad, former researchers at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, think differently. They proposed that there was some sort of organism that crawled on the seabed and punctured the sand from below the surface.
To check if it is in fact an organism making these holes, the Okeanos Explorer vessel has taken a sample of sand from the holes to see if there were any living organisms.
