On July 23, researchers aboard the Okeanos Explorer found holes while exploring an underwater volcano near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. There are many hypotheses surrounding the puzzling holes, but scientists have not solved the mystery.
The holes were positioned eerily in a straight line, which makes them look unnatural. The set of holes are about the width of your hand, and the holes look very much like a giant perforation or dotted line.
Scientists discovered a similar set of holes in 2004, around the same area as the recently-discovered holes. Two marine scientists from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Michael Vecchione and Odd Aksel Bergstad, wrote a hypothesis about why the small excavations exist. They proposed that the holes were made by some organism walking on the sediment, or else by creatures under the sediment pushing upwards.
Scientist have yet to crack the mystery. “It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that someday we will figure out, but we haven’t figured it out yet,” said Dr. Vecchione.
NOAA Ocean Exploration was in charge of the Voyage to the Ridge 2022, the recent expedition on which the holes were discovered. The Voyage to the Ridge 2022 meant to map out the coral reefs along the region, which contain hydrothermal vents.
NOAA asked the public on Twitter and Facebook for theories regarding the holes. It got a wide variety of responses. The theories range from underwater aliens to worms to a giant graham cracker to gasses escaping from under the sediment to cartwheeling starfish.
During the expedition, the researchers found many more things on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. They found a rosy acorn worm, which eats sediment and extracts nutrients from the organic matter in the sediment. Researchers found a very old colony of Bamboo Coral, a deep-sea coral. They also found sea cucumbers, a stalked glass sponge, burying anemones, and siral worm poop, among other things.
Sources:
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
There Are Holes on the Ocean Floor. Scientists Don’t Know Why. – The New York Times
https://www.livescience.com/perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor
The holes were positioned eerily in a straight line, which makes them look unnatural. The set of holes are about the width of your hand, and the holes look very much like a giant perforation or dotted line.
Scientists discovered a similar set of holes in 2004, around the same area as the recently-discovered holes. Two marine scientists from the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, Michael Vecchione and Odd Aksel Bergstad, wrote a hypothesis about why the small excavations exist. They proposed that the holes were made by some organism walking on the sediment, or else by creatures under the sediment pushing upwards.
Scientist have yet to crack the mystery. “It reinforces the idea that there is a mystery that someday we will figure out, but we haven’t figured it out yet,” said Dr. Vecchione.
NOAA Ocean Exploration was in charge of the Voyage to the Ridge 2022, the recent expedition on which the holes were discovered. The Voyage to the Ridge 2022 meant to map out the coral reefs along the region, which contain hydrothermal vents.
NOAA asked the public on Twitter and Facebook for theories regarding the holes. It got a wide variety of responses. The theories range from underwater aliens to worms to a giant graham cracker to gasses escaping from under the sediment to cartwheeling starfish.
During the expedition, the researchers found many more things on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. They found a rosy acorn worm, which eats sediment and extracts nutrients from the organic matter in the sediment. Researchers found a very old colony of Bamboo Coral, a deep-sea coral. They also found sea cucumbers, a stalked glass sponge, burying anemones, and siral worm poop, among other things.
Sources:
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/news/oer-updates/2022/mysterious-holes-seafloor/mysterious-holes-seafloor.html
There Are Holes on the Ocean Floor. Scientists Don’t Know Why. – The New York Times
https://www.livescience.com/perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor
