Nature & Environment
Mysterious Asphalt Mounds Discovered Within the Oceans of West Africa
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Nov 10, 2014 07:02 AM EST
Scientists have uncovered something mysterious in the deep oceans of West Africa. They've found more than two thousand mounds of asphalt on the ocean floor harboring a veritable wealth of deep-water creatures.
The asphalt mounds aren't manmade as you might expect. Instead, they're naturally-occurring even though they're made up out of the same substance that covers our roads. These mounds range in size from single football-sized blobs to small hills that are several meter across. Before now, these types of mounds had only been seen in the Gulf of Mexico and off of the coast of California.
So what exactly are these mounds created by? The asphalt is essentially produced by deep-sea slow tar volcanoes. These volcanoes are associated with flows of oil from within the sediment and are formed when hydrocarbons migrate around subsurface salt structures.
What's more interesting is that the mounds are home to at least 21 types of deep-sea creatures, including large sponges, soft corals, octopus and fish, such as blobfish. In fact, the researchers uncovered a much greater array of species than they predicted.
The asphalt mounds were first discovered by happenstance. The oil company BP was actually investigating the area for oil reserves. When they came across some unusual surface features, they investigated using underwater robots. Once they found the mounds, they then contacted marine scientists.
"This exciting discovery was a great example of collaboration between oil companies and marine scientists," said Daniel Jones, one of the researchers, in a news release. "By working together as a team, we used the industrial data and expertise to get a much better understanding of these important systems, which will be of great value both to the scientists, but also to the BP environmental management teams."
The findings reveal a bit more about these unusual features. More particularly, the new study will help with future predictions of seabed patterns, rock types and habitat in similar areas of the ocean.
The findings are published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers.
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First Posted: Nov 10, 2014 07:02 AM EST
Scientists have uncovered something mysterious in the deep oceans of West Africa. They've found more than two thousand mounds of asphalt on the ocean floor harboring a veritable wealth of deep-water creatures.
The asphalt mounds aren't manmade as you might expect. Instead, they're naturally-occurring even though they're made up out of the same substance that covers our roads. These mounds range in size from single football-sized blobs to small hills that are several meter across. Before now, these types of mounds had only been seen in the Gulf of Mexico and off of the coast of California.
So what exactly are these mounds created by? The asphalt is essentially produced by deep-sea slow tar volcanoes. These volcanoes are associated with flows of oil from within the sediment and are formed when hydrocarbons migrate around subsurface salt structures.
What's more interesting is that the mounds are home to at least 21 types of deep-sea creatures, including large sponges, soft corals, octopus and fish, such as blobfish. In fact, the researchers uncovered a much greater array of species than they predicted.
The asphalt mounds were first discovered by happenstance. The oil company BP was actually investigating the area for oil reserves. When they came across some unusual surface features, they investigated using underwater robots. Once they found the mounds, they then contacted marine scientists.
"This exciting discovery was a great example of collaboration between oil companies and marine scientists," said Daniel Jones, one of the researchers, in a news release. "By working together as a team, we used the industrial data and expertise to get a much better understanding of these important systems, which will be of great value both to the scientists, but also to the BP environmental management teams."
The findings reveal a bit more about these unusual features. More particularly, the new study will help with future predictions of seabed patterns, rock types and habitat in similar areas of the ocean.
The findings are published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone