Mysterious holes on the seafloor

#40 · 🔥 385 · 💬 134 · one year ago · oceanexplorer.noaa.gov · smartmic · 📷
During Dive 04 of the second Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition, we observed several sublinear sets of holes in the sediment on the seafloor at a depth of approximately 2,540 meters. While the holes look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around them suggest they had been excavated. Scientists are not certain as to the origin of these holes, so we put it out to followers on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook , to see what hypotheses members of the public might have as to how these holes formed. This was not the first time that scientists had encountered these mysterious holes. In July 2004, while exploring at a depth of 2,082 meters during an expedition along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, scientists discovered several sets of these holes. While Vecchione and Bergstad were not able to definitively determine the source of the holes or how they were constructed, they hypothesize that the raised sediment may indicate excavation by an organism living in the sediment or digging and removal, perhaps via a feeding appendage of a large animal on the sediment surface. The ultimate origin of the holes still remains a mystery and indeed the unknowns we encounter are often as deep and mysterious as the ocean itself.
Mysterious holes on the seafloor



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