Deep beneath the oceans' crashing waves lies a hidden landscape more alien than many of us could ever dream.Below the Atlantic Ocean lies the Doldrums Megatransform and Fracture Zone, a remote labyrinth of tectonic fractures where Earth's crust is constantly being reshaped across the boundary between two plates.Now, scientists have obtained a glimpse of its haunting, unexpected beauty.Using the remotely controlled underwater vehicle SuBastian and the autonomous underwater vehicle The Childlike Empress from the deck of the research vessel Falkor (too), a team led by marine scientist Aaron Micallef of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California has captured wonders human eyes have never seen."This discovery shows why exploration still matters," Micallef says."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. This expedition showed that even in one of the most remote corners of the ocean, our planet remains alive, dynamic, and full of surprises."
The Doldrums covers roughly 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles, about the size of Lake Michigan) of the Atlantic seafloor. It slices across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, part of the world's longest mountain chain, plunging thousands of meters into the abyssal zone.As with most of the deep ocean, not much exploration has been conducted in the region. But because it cuts across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it offers an ideal natural laboratory for studying the geological processes that shape Earth's longest mountain chain.Micallef and his colleagues spent a month aboard Falkor (too) using SuBastian and The Childlike Empress to conduct field research.
