On July 23, sea explorers utilized a remotely operated vehicle to venture unexplored undersea areas. During the dive, researchers found rows of holes with each hole about 10 centimeters apart near Portugal’s mainland. These holes were discovered 1.6 miles below the ocean surface.
“The origin of the holes has scientists stumped. The holes look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by … something,” said the post on Twitter from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ocean Exploration project. The administration turned to the public to provide speculations.
Comments included: Are the holes man-made? Could they be a sign from extraterrestrials? Are they tracks left by a submarine? A Twitter user even suggested it could be the breathing holes of a “deep-sea creature that buries itself under the sand.”
Michael Vecchione, a NOAA deep-sea biologist involved with the expedition, claimed that the possibility of a creature under the sand is not far-fetched. He came up with two hypotheses and both suggested marine life either walking or swimming above the sediment and poking holes down or burrowing underneath the sediment and poking holes upward.
The remotely operated vehicle’s suctioning device collected samples of sediment on the ocean floor to examine if organisms exist within the holes. Vecchione said he was happy to encounter the mysterious holes, but was slightly disappointed because scientist didn’t have an explanation.
“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,” Vecchione said. Over the course of three expeditions, experts at NOAA will be constantly hypothesizing and seeking for answers. According to the New York Times, the last dive of the series is scheduled for August 7.
“The origin of the holes has scientists stumped. The holes look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by … something,” said the post on Twitter from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Ocean Exploration project. The administration turned to the public to provide speculations.
Comments included: Are the holes man-made? Could they be a sign from extraterrestrials? Are they tracks left by a submarine? A Twitter user even suggested it could be the breathing holes of a “deep-sea creature that buries itself under the sand.”
Michael Vecchione, a NOAA deep-sea biologist involved with the expedition, claimed that the possibility of a creature under the sand is not far-fetched. He came up with two hypotheses and both suggested marine life either walking or swimming above the sediment and poking holes down or burrowing underneath the sediment and poking holes upward.
The remotely operated vehicle’s suctioning device collected samples of sediment on the ocean floor to examine if organisms exist within the holes. Vecchione said he was happy to encounter the mysterious holes, but was slightly disappointed because scientist didn’t have an explanation.
“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,” Vecchione said. Over the course of three expeditions, experts at NOAA will be constantly hypothesizing and seeking for answers. According to the New York Times, the last dive of the series is scheduled for August 7.
