NOAA discovered mysterious rows of holes in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean
(NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022 https://bit.ly/3PFEXjS)
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have discovered long, straight rows of holes on the bottom (about 2.5 kilometers deep) of the Atlantic Ocean.
The origin of the holes remains a mystery, perhaps they were dug by unknown marine life or it is the result of some geological processes.
It is possible that they are of man-made origin, too (a team of researchers could have left them when collecting cores).
The exploration of the ocean floor often leads to surprising discoveries.
Last year, for example, ichthyologists discovered in the Weddell Sea off the coast of Antarctica a cluster of nests of white whales (Neopagetopsis ionah) the size of a small city.
And scientists have found life-rich sponge gardens in the central part of the Arctic Ocean that grow on the remains of a hydrothermal community that disappeared more than two thousand years ago.
The new findings
This May, NOAA and partners launched a series of three Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expeditions.
Their goal was to visit three little-studied areas in the North Atlantic:
- the Charlie Gibbs Fault Zone
- the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- the Azores Plateau.
Activities include bottom mapping and ROV dives to learn more about the geological structure of the region and the living organisms that inhabit it.
During the second expedition, which runs from the 9 to 13 of July, scientists focused on the section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores and the Azores plateau.
On July 23, during their fourth remote rover dive, they discovered in the sediment on the sea floor at a depth of 2540 meters many small holes
They were arranged in a regular pattern and lined up in straight rows up to several meters long.
The holes looked man-made. However, small heaps of sediment around each of them indicated that some animals had dug them up.
The researchers tried to look inside the mysterious holes or pierce them with the help of remote apparatus tools, but they did not succeed.
In addition, they were unable to find out whether these holes are connected to each other under a layer of sediment.
(NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022 https://bit.ly/3bb8pPV)
Possible origin
NOAA officials do not yet have an answer to the question of who created the rows of holes in the seabed.
However, scientists received many versions from readers when they published the images of these objects on social networks.
Some commentators suggest that the holes were dug by marine life, such as crabs of an unknown species.
Others believe that this was the work of humans, such as another team of scientists who collected core samples from the seabed.
It has also been suggested that the holes appeared due to gas escaping from the bottom, while a group suggested there might be aliens.. o Kaijus.
(Pacificrim Fandom/Wiki https://bit.ly/3OB38ih)
Interestingly, this is not the first time researchers have found such rows of holes on the ocean floor.
Similar objects were discovered in July 2004 in the northern part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at a depth of 2082 meters, and some lines of holes were not straight, but curved.
The article on these holes notes that they indicate how little we know about mid-ocean ridge ecosystems.
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