A crew member aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus, part of the Corps of Exploration studying the Liliʻuokalani Ridge in the Pacific Ocean, described an underwater formation as looking like "the road to Atlantis" in a video posted to the Nautilus YouTube channel earlier this week. The same clip includes the exclamation, "Are you kidding? This is crazy."
According to a post on the Nautilus website, the structure that resembles a "yellow brick road" to the mythical city is actually an example of ancient active volcanic geology. The post also describes the underwater feature as a "dried lake bed." The crew filmed additional clips of rock sample collection and nearby sea life.
Last month, CNET reported the team found otherworldly species during submarine excursions, including an "unidentified gelatinous creature" that prompted a team member to say, "Very charismatic. Yay!" during a clip of the voyage.
The Nautilus team cannot be everywhere at once, nor can other oceanic researchers. The original report notes that coral reefs are bleaching again, animals are living in plastic wastelands, and scientists say a potential mass extinction is on the way, raising the question of what sea life might go uncatalogued because it died before researchers could study it.
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