Oceanographers have discovered a beautiful underwater world filled with rare marine species. This “brave new world” is located around 900 miles off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean. It’s actually an underwater mountain, which was recently discovered and mapped by members of the Schmidt Ocean Institute in California.
The mountain is roughly 1.9 miles tall, or 3,109 meters. It’s part of a much larger underwater mountain range, and the researchers involved say the range is home to ancient corals, sponge gardens, and more—including a new species of squid that had never been filmed before.
The scientist discovered the previously undiscovered home to these rare marine species thanks to the use of the R/V Falkor (too) research vessel. These findings are part of a 28-day expedition, which wrapped up earlier this month. They used sonar to map out the entirety of the mountain under the ship’s hull. Sonar does this by bouncing sound waves down and off the surface at the bottom.
The researchers then calculate the time it took for the sound waves to return to the ship, which helps them measure just how tall parts of the seabed are. Missions like this remain so important because only 26 percent of the seafloor has been mapped to this resolution, the researchers say. And since the seafloor covers 71 percent of our planet’s surface, there are many unexplored areas.
What’s really impressive is that the newly mapped-out underwater seamount is larger than Mount Olympus in Greece, which measures just 9,570 feet high (2,917 meters). It is smaller than some other mountains, though, like Mount Fuji in Japan. Still, it’s nothing to scoff at, especially with so many rare marine species living around it and the other seamounts within this new range.
As noted before, the rare marine species discovered around the mountain range include a never-before-filmed squid called the Promachoteuthis squid, as well as footage of a Casper octopus, which doesn’t even have a scientific name yet, as it hasn’t actually been captured before. The ocean continues to hold secrets, including never-before-seen creatures. There’s no telling what else we’ll find down there as we continue to pull back the curtain.
