Lines of Mysterious Holes Found in Floor of Atlantic Ocean
Researchers from NOAA were left scratching their heads when one of their underwater exploratory vehicles spotted a series of mysterious holes arranged in inexplicable lines along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
The odd discovery reportedly occurred this past Saturday as the scientific agency’s Okeanos Explorer ship was conducting dives near the Azores.
At a depth of around 1.7 miles, their remotely operated vehicle caught sight of some curious markings in the ocean floor and, upon further inspection, found them to be eerily uniform in nature.
Sharing photos of the oddities online, NOAA explained that their vessel had seen “several” of the lines and indicated that “these holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery.”
Additional additional insights on Twitter, the agency observed that oceanic anomalies “look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by … something,” before conceding that their scientists are “stumped” as to their source.
As one might imagine, the intriguing images spawned a number of theories from people online with some suggesting that they could have been created various different marine creatures, such as beaked whales or worms.
Others argued that the holes were indicative of some kind of man-made device buried at the location or signs of a similar object that had been secretly removed prior to the arrival of the NOAA vessel.
And, of course, there were a handful of people who simply pointed the finger at aliens.
With that in mind, what do you think made the mysterious holes?
Share your best guess with us at the C2C Facebook page.
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Old Crow
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They are staples that hold the mid Atlantic ridge together.
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Charles Higley
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A crack opening up in the bottom could do this. The holes are not regular in spacing and the overlying sediment has simply fallen at irregular intervals. If it was regular intervals, it might be weird, but these are not. Yawn.
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Jerry Mander
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My guess is that it’s a predatory mollusk digging for some critter that lives below the sand, and you’ll find it at one end or the other of that string of holes, it will be in the last hole it dug.
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MattH
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The correct term for ‘predatory mollusk’ is crustacean. Possibly a crab but more likely a shrimp or scampi type critter.
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MattH
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The below reference shows a scampi in it’s burrow.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrops_norvegicus
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Tim
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Nephrops Norvegicus doesn’t really live more than 0.5 miles deep and the depth of the seafloor in the story is 1.7 miles.
Guessing the holes are about 10,000 years old…
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MattH
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Quite right Tim. Although the depths for the scampi probably refer to commercially viable numbers and variety.
The body shape explains the straight-ish line of the holes. To burrow non straight would require biomechanical contortion for a shrimp/scampi.
A crab would have difficulty burrowing in a straight line. There are a vast number of scampi species so likely a deep water shrimp or scampi
The critters have been doing it for squillions of years. Really naughty.
Jerry Krause
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Hi Matt,
Good comments and Literature Search. But did you check out Jerry Mander who seems to know what NOAA scientist do not seem to know. You seem to know this but Jerry beat you by 18 minutes.
I have just checked coasttocoastam and see neither you nor Jerry Mander has given them an explanation (not a guess). So you should beat him to the punch.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Matt, Can you now directly post your comments?
(You are the ONLY one with this problem which the solution still eludes me, might have to register you to get around this irritating problem) SUNMOD Administrator
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Jack
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Laugh if you want, but yes, it was probab.ly aliens. They’re here now, very thick around us. They’re waiting for their new brother to be born. He’s been developing recently, but is not yet aware. Computer scientists and programmers are hard at work ensuring his nascent presence among us, soon.
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Old Crow
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Mr 666 you mean ?
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Tom O
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Very interesting appearing. The line is relatively straight, and the holes look fairly uniform in size and spacing. I wonder if they line up on a ley line or what the magnetic orientation of the line is?
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nohomehere
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I would not put my hand in those holes, would you?
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Moffin
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Even a cotton glove nearly eliminates the potential of lacerations and puncture wounds from the creepy crawlies lurking on and under the mud and sand.
Stingray barbs are the exception. Things like white pointers’. bull sharks etc. tend not to hide and lurk on and under the mud and sand. (or grovel on the gravel.)
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Whokoo
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There have been many reports of satellites of similar number and orientation.
This is probably caused by the Elon Musk Shrimp.
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Eric the Red
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No doubt about it, global warming has struck again to create these menacing holes.
Also, don’t forget, looking at undersea holes for too long can cause Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, i.e., ABV (Anything But the Vaxx).
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Gennadiy
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Traces of the Second World War.
Depth charges fall with an equal time interval, but at such a depth, when the pressure is tens of times higher than atmospheric pressure, the explosion can be narrowly targeted …
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Tom O
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Interesting hypothesis. The only problem would be there would be no reason for depth charges being set to 1.7 miles as it would defeat the reason for using them – subs back then couldn’t go below about 300 feet, I believe. It would be odd indeed for whole strings of charges failing to go off until they hit the bottom of the ocean. I’d still like to know their orientation, though.
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Gennadiy
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A variety of mines, magnetic, are installed at the bottom in anticipation of the passage of the vessel.
These were dropped on the noise by a minesweeper, in the hope that they would be magnetized. The design of these mines is a ball with a diameter of about a meter. Having got to the depth, they withstood a colossal pressure for a short time – 20 kPa, but nevertheless they were crushed (crumpled) causing an explosion through a slot narrowly directed to the bottom, purely reactive, where high pressure did not allow, as at atmospheric pressure, to form a round funnel. All this is high pressure.
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Herb Rose
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Probably some type of worm, where internal pressure equals external pressure. They poke out of the holes, sweep an area of the water for food (creating the regular pattern) then retreat when any vibration in the water signals a possible predator.
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Allan Shelton
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It was underwater aliens on pogo sticks.
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Roo63
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Well, if they aren’t Air Vents, then they must be for Telegraph Poles, they breed like flies, ya know and rarely flush the chain 🙂
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