Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has been visually observed despite covering more than half of the planet’s surface.On April 1, the Ocean Discovery League set out to build on that 0.001%
Only 0.001% of the deep seafloor has been visually observed despite covering more than half of the planet’s surface.
On April 1, the Ocean Discovery League set out to build on that 0.001% with the launch of the Global Deep Sea Exploration Goals, an international effort to visually explore 10,000 strategically selected locations across the deep seafloor.
The target locations were selected with the aim of providing a representative picture of deep seafloor environmental diversity.
What might be found? Perhaps something weirder than the “forest of the weird.”
On July 25, 2017, scientists onboard NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer observed a tiny part of the 0.001% and found what they dubbed the “forest of the weird” at a depth of around 2,442 meters in waters off the Johnston Atoll, roughly 750–825 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.
The dive log on the day of the discovery states:
“The bottom was characterized by large boulders, cemented basalt, and rocks with a heavy manganese crust and light dusting of sediment. The dive track going upslope was on a sustained community of sponges that also included deep-sea octocorals and associated invertebrates. When Deep Discoverer reached a ridge, the current changed. Here, the
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