Researchers discover mesmerizing underwater world teeming with new life

Date: August 7, 2018

Source: MNN
Author: Christian Cotroneo

If the planet stands any chance of keeping a secret from prying humans, it’s deep in the oceans.

In fact, we’ve long known there are sprawling ranges — called seamounts — deep underwater, many as breathtakingly grand as anything we’ve seen on terra firma.

Being in the deepest depths, those clandestine cliffs and nebulous valleys elude not just human eyes, but even sea-probing satellites and sonar-equipped ships.

And that’s a good thing. Because when we do occasionally find one of the planet’s secrets stashes, it’s a trove of scientific data — untarnished geological features and marine habitats that spent millennia oblivious to our presence.

Think of it as an alien planet teeming with life.

You might understand then why a team of Canadian researchers has been staring at screens for the last 16 days or so. They’ve been remotely exploring newly discovered seamounts, some at least as high as the Rockies, off the coast of British Columbia.

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