MYSTERIOUS holes bored 1.7 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean have baffled scientists.
The photos show that the dents drilled into a flat, sandy surface connect in clean, straight lines.
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An underwater vessel piloted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration came across the unusual drilling over the weekendCredit: NOAA
A remote underwater craft piloted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) encountered the unusual drillings over the weekend.
The crew of the Okeanos Explorer said the holes appeared to be man-made, but could offer no further explanation as to how they got there.
Okeanos is investigating the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a largely unexplored area of the seafloor that is home to a huge submerged mountain range.
“We observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment,” NOAA Ocean Exploration reported.
“Such holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery.
“Although they look almost man-made, the small piles of sediment around the holes make them look like they were dug by… something.”
The July 23 dive visited the summit of an underwater volcano north of the Azores, reaching a depth of 1.7 miles.
Okeanos is loaded with a remote camera to record discoveries safely.
The crew is mapping the seafloor and studying coral and sponge communities in the unexplored region.
NOAA often broadcasts live its remote vehicle dives, which are conducted from a ship on the surface of the water.
The agency posted photos of the discovery on social media and encouraged followers to speculate about the origin of the holes.
“I wonder if some company might be sampling the seabed,” one user wrote on Facebook.
“That could explain the straight lines and the spacing of the holes. Especially if you’ve seen others in the region. The only thing is that everything around it doesn’t seem to have been disturbed.”
Another wrote: “Uplift! Fresh water from an earth spring bubbling? Like there’s a rock underneath that allows the flowing water to break in that linear way.”
And a third said, “Some kind of crab maybe.”
Other people jokingly suggested that the holes might have been left by aliens.
“I’m not saying it was the aliens…but it was the aliens,” read a meme shared by a Facebook user.
The most likely explanation seems to be that the sand falls through gaps in the rock below.
One user commented: “This looks to me like sediment falling through or water flowing from a crack in a geological platform or cave ceiling.
“I suspect that the ancient coral or some underlying sedimentary rock structure has a gap through which the material is being washed further away.
“I would start to see if there were any caves or deformations on the sea floor.”
The Mid-Atlantic Mountain Range stretches for 10,000 miles, making it the longest mountain range in the world.
It stretches the north-south length of the Atlantic Ocean, and because most of it is underwater, it remains largely unexplored.
The stretch of rocky terrain is the site of frequent earthquakes and hydrothermal vents that form when magma rises to the seafloor.
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Photos show that dents drilled into a flat, sandy surface connect in straight, clean linesCredit: NOAA
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NOAA uses remotely operated vehicles to explore the ocean floorCredit: NOAA
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