Between July 23 and July 28, in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Azores, Portugal, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) controlled a remotely operated vehicle, finding over a dozen sets of mysterious holes on the ocean floor of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
A Twitter post from the NOAA scientists who made the recent discovery shows that these holes were several inches apart, and the sublinear sets of holes extended up to seven feet. According to NOAA spokeswoman Emily Crum, 18 years ago, scientists found similar holes in the ocean floor 27 miles away from the recent sighting.
Although scientists have not figured out the origins of these holes, they labeled them as a form of “lebensspuren,” which is German for “life traces.” The unconfirmed assumption that living organisms created these imprints led to this classification.
On the Twitter post by the NOAA Ocean Exploration project regarding these holes, “The origin of the holes has scientists stumped. The holes look human-made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest [an organism excavated them].” Curious for an explanation of the holes’ origins, the NOAA scientists asked the public for their hypotheses on social media.
In a paper written on these holes in 2004, Michael Vecchione, a deep-sea biologist at NOAA, and Odd Aksel Bergstad, a former researcher at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, proposed a hypothesis for the origins of these holes. This inference involved marine life burrowing within the sediment and jabbing holes upwards. After the discovery on July 28, 2022, Dr. Vecchione still believes that marine organisms excavated these holes from underneath.
Additionally, Dr. Vecchione commented that he was “a little disappointed” that scientists have not found the origins of these holes. Furthermore, he remarked, “It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that [someday] we will figure out. But we haven’t figured it out yet.”
Through more dives, photographs, and research over a mile deep into the Atlantic Ocean, the researchers at NOAA hope to collect enough evidence to decipher the formation of these holes on the ocean floor.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659262048137x643432466058633000/There%20Are%20Holes%20on%20the%20Ocean%20Floor.%20Scientists%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know%20Why.%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
https://twitter.com/oceanexplorer/status/1551659318637760512
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.812915/full
https://www.facebook.com/OceanExplorationResearch
https://schmidtocean.org/cruise-log-post/lebensspuren-more-than-a-fancy-word/
A Twitter post from the NOAA scientists who made the recent discovery shows that these holes were several inches apart, and the sublinear sets of holes extended up to seven feet. According to NOAA spokeswoman Emily Crum, 18 years ago, scientists found similar holes in the ocean floor 27 miles away from the recent sighting.
Although scientists have not figured out the origins of these holes, they labeled them as a form of “lebensspuren,” which is German for “life traces.” The unconfirmed assumption that living organisms created these imprints led to this classification.
On the Twitter post by the NOAA Ocean Exploration project regarding these holes, “The origin of the holes has scientists stumped. The holes look human-made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest [an organism excavated them].” Curious for an explanation of the holes’ origins, the NOAA scientists asked the public for their hypotheses on social media.
In a paper written on these holes in 2004, Michael Vecchione, a deep-sea biologist at NOAA, and Odd Aksel Bergstad, a former researcher at the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, proposed a hypothesis for the origins of these holes. This inference involved marine life burrowing within the sediment and jabbing holes upwards. After the discovery on July 28, 2022, Dr. Vecchione still believes that marine organisms excavated these holes from underneath.
Additionally, Dr. Vecchione commented that he was “a little disappointed” that scientists have not found the origins of these holes. Furthermore, he remarked, “It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that [someday] we will figure out. But we haven’t figured it out yet.”
Through more dives, photographs, and research over a mile deep into the Atlantic Ocean, the researchers at NOAA hope to collect enough evidence to decipher the formation of these holes on the ocean floor.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659262048137x643432466058633000/There%20Are%20Holes%20on%20the%20Ocean%20Floor.%20Scientists%20Don%E2%80%99t%20Know%20Why.%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
https://twitter.com/oceanexplorer/status/1551659318637760512
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.812915/full
https://www.facebook.com/OceanExplorationResearch
https://schmidtocean.org/cruise-log-post/lebensspuren-more-than-a-fancy-word/
