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NOAA Finds Weird Lines Of Holes In Mid-Atlantic Floor

maximus otter

maximus otter

Recovering policeman
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Scientists exploring a submerged mountain range in the Mid-Atlantic stumbled onto something they can’t explain: An organized series of holes punched in the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

The discovery was made Saturday, July 23, and photos show the dots connect into nearly straight lines ... or trails ... or designs.

AtlSeafloorHoles-2207.jpg


NOAA Ocean Exploration isn’t yet sure how to explain it.

“We observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment. These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery,” NOAA Ocean Exploration reported.

“While they look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by ... something.”

The July 23 dive reached depths of 1.7 miles while visiting the summit of an underwater volcano north of the Azores. A remotely operated camera was used to safely record the discoveries.

NOAA posted photos that show the holes were found in what is otherwise a flat sandy surface.

Scientists invited the public to offer theories.

https://www.aol.com/news/look-almos...qvLP9roroHGmLZW6ibHnnh7lgrEVL7-9XFcEc9Whro1v8

maximus otter
 
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Has anyone joined the dots up yet to see what they make?
 
maximus otter said:
Scientists exploring a submerged mountain range in the Mid-Atlantic stumbled onto something they can’t explain: An organized series of holes punched in the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

The discovery was made Saturday, July 23, and photos show the dots connect into nearly straight lines ... or trails ... or designs.

View attachment 57564

NOAA Ocean Exploration isn’t yet sure how to explain it.

“We observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment. These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery,” NOAA Ocean Exploration reported.

“While they look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by ... something.”

The July 23 dive reached depths of 1.7 miles while visiting the summit of an underwater volcano north of the Azores. A remotely operated camera was used to safely record the discoveries.

NOAA posted photos that show the holes were found in what is otherwise a flat sandy surface.

Scientists invited the public to offer theories.

https://www.aol.com/news/look-almos...qvLP9roroHGmLZW6ibHnnh7lgrEVL7-9XFcEc9Whro1v8

maximus otter
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It’s just an exuberant starfish doing cartwheels!
 
SimonBurchell said:
It could be some kind of bottom-feeding animal that just crawls along the sea bed excavating holes looking for food in the sediment, worms or some-such.
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Or some kind of worm that lives in colonies. I'd think there's probably a perfectly boring explanation (sorry!) that relies on the natural world. In fact, I'm a little bit puzzled at the whole 'Wooooo! It's a MYSTERY!' nature of this - it's just a creature we don't know about yet.
 
A larger number of these hole-tracks (of more diverse types and degrees of linearity) were encountered and recorded back in 2004, but a research report on these discoveries apparently wasn't published until January 2022.

Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for the published report. The full report includes multiple photographs, and it can be accessed at the link below.

Vecchione Michael, Bergstad Odd Aksel
Numerous Sublinear Sets of Holes in Sediment on the Northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge Point to Knowledge Gaps in Understanding Mid-Ocean Ridge Ecosystems
Frontiers in Marine Science Volume 9 (2022) ISSN 2296-7745
DOI 10.3389/fmars.2022.812915

ABSTRACT
On 13 July 2004, during an expedition exploring biodiversity along the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an ROV dive recorded videos of numerous sublinear sets of holes in sediment at ca. 2,082 m depth. The location was north of the Azores. Each set appeared track-like. Lengths of individual series ranged from < 1 m to many meters. Each was straight or gently curved. Some series intersected or crossed. Close examination of the holes showed them to be elongate, with the long axis parallel to the axis of the series. The holes were ca. 6 × 1.5 cm, with distance between holes similar to hole length. The holes that appeared to be most recently formed were each surrounded by raised sediment. Holes that appeared older were partly filled with sediment and the raised surrounding sediment was less obvious. Overall, these lebensspuren created small-scale heterogeneity in the local soft-bottom benthic ecosystem. The source of the holes or how they were constructed is unknown, but the raised sediment may indicate excavation by an infaunal organism or digging and removal by e.g., a feeding appendage of a large epifaunal animal. None of our closeups showed any sign of living organisms inhabiting the holes. Whether the holes were connected beneath the sediment surface was not visible. The traces observed are reminiscent of ichnofossils reported from deep marine facies. We hope that future studies of the lebensspuren we report here will resolve the mystery of what created them.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT (With Photos): https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.812915
 
Scallops can 'hop' but it would have to be a large abd heavy one to create those marks. They also seem too close together but I wonder whether some other kind of shellfish could be responsible.
 
Erinaceus said:
Scallops can 'hop' but it would have to be a large abd heavy one to create those marks. They also seem too close together but I wonder whether some other kind of shellfish could be responsible.
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I suspect the holes were made from something 'underneath' coming 'up' rather than something above going down. There does seem to be some disturbed matter around the 'top' of the holes which I would assume were spoil thrust out of the hole from whatever it was that was popping its head (or other organ) out.
 
Paul_Exeter said:
... Does anyone have a scale for these holes?
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The only size / spacing estimates I've seen are the ones in the 2020 report on the 2004 sightings:
Lengths of individual series ranged from < 1 m ... to many meters ... Each series was nearly straight ... or gently curved ... Some series intersected or crossed. Close examination of the individual holes showed them to be elongate, with the long axis parallel to the axis of the series. Based on comparison with nearby shells of Clio recurva, the holes were ca. 6 × 1.5 cm, with distance between holes similar to hole length.
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https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.812915/full
 
What are the mystery ‘perfectly aligned’ holes at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

Mysterious holes bored 1.7 miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean have stumped scientists.

Photos show that the dents punched into an otherwise flat and sandy surface connect into neat, straight lines.

Photos show that the dents punched into an otherwise flat and sandy surface connect into neat, straight lines.

An underwater craft piloted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stumbled across the unusual perforations over the weekend.

KS_COMP_HOLES-1.jpg


The crew of the Okeanos Explorer said they looked manmade but could offer no further explanation as to how they got there.

Okeanos is investigating the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a largely unexplored area of seafloor that's home to a huge submerged mountain range.

"We observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment," NOAA Ocean Exploration reported.

"These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery.

"While they look almost human-made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by ... something."

The July 23 dive visited the summit of an underwater volcano north of the Azores.

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/5868048/mystery-perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor-atlantic/

maximus otter
 
I am absolutely positive that I read somewhere the other day that a scientist has found the cause, it's a little undersea creature. But I can't remember where I read it, nor can I find it online. Maybe I dreamed it?
 
maximus otter said:
What are the mystery ‘perfectly aligned’ holes at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean?

Mysterious holes bored 1.7 miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean have stumped scientists.

Photos show that the dents punched into an otherwise flat and sandy surface connect into neat, straight lines.

Photos show that the dents punched into an otherwise flat and sandy surface connect into neat, straight lines.

An underwater craft piloted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stumbled across the unusual perforations over the weekend.

KS_COMP_HOLES-1.jpg


The crew of the Okeanos Explorer said they looked manmade but could offer no further explanation as to how they got there.

Okeanos is investigating the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a largely unexplored area of seafloor that's home to a huge submerged mountain range.

"We observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment," NOAA Ocean Exploration reported.

"These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery.

"While they look almost human-made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by ... something."

The July 23 dive visited the summit of an underwater volcano north of the Azores.

https://www.the-sun.com/tech/5868048/mystery-perfectly-aligned-holes-seafloor-atlantic/

maximus otter
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This is odd. This appears to be the original story posted by you, Max. Though the Sun article has a 2023 byline date. It is the same story posted a year later. Is The Sun really that far behind in its information, or did it have a no news day?
 
This is VERY strange. I am sure I read (possibly on here somewhere) that a scientist was looking at the pictures, and then she shouted 'I know what it is!' then went off and found some old pictures of a little creature making these very same markings somewhere else. But I cannot find any trace of the article I read - and I sometimes scan the papers as I put them out for return so it could have been in a newspaper, but why is it nowhere online? I distinctly remember the excitement of the female scientist as she put two and two together... I'd love to read that bit again.
 
catseye said:
This is VERY strange. I am sure I read (possibly on here somewhere) that a scientist was looking at the pictures, and then she shouted 'I know what it is!' then went off and found some old pictures of a little creature making these very same markings somewhere else. But I cannot find any trace of the article I read - and I sometimes scan the papers as I put them out for return so it could have been in a newspaper, but why is it nowhere online? I distinctly remember the excitement of the female scientist as she put two and two together... I'd love to read that bit again.
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Here ye go.

Discovered in the deep: scientists solve mystery of ‘pogo-stick’ seabed holes​


The discovery happened by chance. Various animals were spied nearby and became suspects. “Most things were pretty easy to exclude,” says Julia Sigwart from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt. The holes were too small for sea urchins to fit into, and the wrong shape to be worm burrows.

Then one of the team, Angelika Brandt, also from the Senckenberg Museum, noticed something: a little crustacean.

“Angelika jumps up, she points at the screen and says: ‘It’s that! That’s the maker!’ and then she ran out of the room,” says Sigwart.

A few moments later, Brandt returned with an external computer hard drive and showed everyone a video that had been shot 40 years earlier by a colleague. It was an amphipod – a relative of beach-dwelling sand hoppers – from Antarctica, filmed in captivity busily digging a burrow in the sand in its aquarium. Using its huge front appendages, it was carefully shovelling sand out of a hole and heaping it in a neat pile without letting it slide back in.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ts-solve-mystery-of-pogo-stick-seabed-tunnels
 
ramonmercado said:
Here ye go.

Discovered in the deep: scientists solve mystery of ‘pogo-stick’ seabed holes​


The discovery happened by chance. Various animals were spied nearby and became suspects. “Most things were pretty easy to exclude,” says Julia Sigwart from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt. The holes were too small for sea urchins to fit into, and the wrong shape to be worm burrows.

Then one of the team, Angelika Brandt, also from the Senckenberg Museum, noticed something: a little crustacean.

“Angelika jumps up, she points at the screen and says: ‘It’s that! That’s the maker!’ and then she ran out of the room,” says Sigwart.

A few moments later, Brandt returned with an external computer hard drive and showed everyone a video that had been shot 40 years earlier by a colleague. It was an amphipod – a relative of beach-dwelling sand hoppers – from Antarctica, filmed in captivity busily digging a burrow in the sand in its aquarium. Using its huge front appendages, it was carefully shovelling sand out of a hole and heaping it in a neat pile without letting it slide back in.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...ts-solve-mystery-of-pogo-stick-seabed-tunnels
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Oh phew thank you!! I was beginning to think I'd imagined it!
 
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