13,123 feet below Atlantic, in the Doldrums, an eerie creature is seen for the first time
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "13,123 feet below Atlantic, in the Doldrums, an eerie creature is seen for the first time")
Creatures residing in the deep sea where sunlight does not reach were filmed. Photograph: (Schmidt Ocean Institute)
The Doldrums fault system, located deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean, has revealed itself as a haunting and creepy zone at a depth of over 13,000 feet. Scientists saw a fish with barrel-like eyes for the first time, along with two never-before-seen hydrothermal fields.
Scientists have for the first time captured a haunting portion of the Atlantic Ocean spanning 60,000 square kilometres, about the size of Lake Michigan. The Doldrums Megatransform and Fracture Zone consists of tectonic fractures where Earth's crust is being reshaped constantly. At a depth of 13,123 feet, they discovered in this twilight zone two never-before-seen hydrothermal fields. These are regions on the seafloor from which heat and chemicals seep into the ocean from inside Earth, creating the perfect conditions for life to thrive. This region was teeming with shrimps, crabs and anemones, along with a barreleye fish seen for the very first time.
First-ever sighting of the Barreleye fish
The discovery was made by researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute. The fish belongs to a species named Winteria telescope and was seen at a depth of 2,300 feet, filmed for the first time in its natural habitat. Barreleye fish gets its name from the way its eyes are arranged - two tubular eyes capped with light-sensitive lenses. The interesting part is that they got to see the transparent, fluid-filled dome of the head inside which the eyes are located. Since this dome is extremely delicate, it collapses when the fish is removed from the sea. Hence, humans had never really seen this feature of the Barreleye fish.
Creepiest resident of the deep sea
At 12,000 feet, they found the bigfin squid, belonging to the genus Magnapinna. It is one of the eeriest creatures residing in the deepest portion of the ocean. Scientists used the remotely controlled underwater vehicle SuBastian and the autonomous underwater vehicle The Childlike Empress from the deck of the research vessel Falkor (too) to peer deep into the Atlantic Ocean. Marine scientist Aaron Micallef of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California led the team in this endeavour.
"Even in the Atlantic Ocean, where plate boundaries have been studied for decades, there are still places where the first close look can reveal something entirely new," Micallef said. The Doldrums is an active fault system that slices across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, part of the world's longest mountain chain.
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