14 Weird Things Found in the Ocean
The earth is made up of about 71% water, much of which we still haven’t explored. It’s in the dark depths of the ocean where strange creatures lurk, unexplainable geographical creations are formed, and new discoveries are made every day. It’s not just wild species of fish and strange rock formations that have been found over the years. Shipwrecks, man-made structures, and even entire cities have been hidden underwater for centuries. There are many weird things found in the ocean that are also unexplainable and have left scientists puzzeled.
The list of weird and wonderful things found in the ocean continues to grow by the day, with everything from an ancient computer to an apparent alien spaceship having been uncovered in recent years. Here is a list of some of the strangest things deep sea divers and ocean explorers have come across.
14 Weird Things Found in the Ocean
1. The World’s Oldest City
The remains of an ancient city were found in 2001 off the coast of India in the Gulf of Khambhat. Scientists retrieved many different items from the large city, including artwork, hand tools, fossilized bones, and pottery shards. What makes the discovery incredible is that the city is thought to be around 9,000 years old, which pre-dates the earliest Indian civilizations that sprung up 4,000 years ago.
There is still not a lot known about this ancient city as scientists and archeologists continue to search the area for more clues and debate how old the city really is and who once inhabited it.
2. Mariana Trench
In the Western Pacific Ocean, you will find the deepest part of the sea. The Mariana Trench is deeper than the height of Mount Everest, 43 miles wide, and a massive 1,580 miles long, which is five times longer than the Grand Canyon.
A certified US National Monument, only small areas of the Mariana Trench have been explored. James Cameron reached the bottom in the submersible vessel Deepsea Challenger in 2012, with the last successful attempt to search the ocean floor coming in 2020 when the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe made it all the way down.
Several new species of underwater creatures have been discovered in the Mariana Trench, with most living on the surface of the ocean floor, including a type of sea cucumber and monothalamea. Don’t expect to find any marine animals like a whale or goblin shark at this depth, as the pressure is too much for these sea creatures to survive.
3. An Ancient Computer
Snorkelers exploring a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera in 1901 stumbled across something incredible. Deep down in the bowels of the ship was a strange device scientists believe is the first computer.
Resembling a clock, x-ray technology revealed that the man-made item could predict eclipses and was also used as a type of calender to count down the days until the next Olympic games. The piece of equipment is now displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
4. The Engines of Apollo 11
The Apollo 11 mission is widely regarded as one of the most successful space missions in history. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were part of the three-man team who became the first people to set foot on the Moon. Some 43 years after their triumphant space mission, the engines from the Saturn V rocket that launched the duo (plus pilot Michael Collins) into space were found.
Located some 14,000 feet underwater off the coast of Florida, the man responsible for finding this piece of space history is none other than Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. Turns out Bezos is a fan of space and the Apollo 11 mission inspired his passion for science and technology.
5. Christ of the Abyss
This one is kinda cheating as the sculpture of Jesus Christ was dropped into the Medertarrian Sea by artist Guido Galletti. Known as Christ of the Abyss, the bronze statue can be found between Camogli and Portofino on the Italian Riviera. It was placed in the Mediterranean Sea on August 22, 1954, right near the spot where the first Italian scuba diver, Dario Gonzatti, tragically lost his life.
The statue of Jesus has his arms raised as if giving thanks and is a major tourist attraction for scuba divers who travel to Italy. It has been cleaned and repaired several times and inspired two more sculptures created from the same mold, one is off the coast of Grenade, and the other six miles east of Key Largo, Florida.
6. Locomotive Graveyard
Paul Hepler made a surprising discovery when mapping part of the New Jersey coast. The accomplished diver came across two locomotives that were lost in the 1850s. Both are rare Planet Class 2-2-2 T models, a type of train that was only produced for a short period of time.
Nobody is quite sure how the trains came to their final resting place, with the mystery continuing to baffle people today. There’s no documentation of the trains being built or going missing. The best explanation is that they were being transported on a ship when a storm sprung up and had to be ditched overboard to stop the ship from sinking.
7. Icy Finger of Death
This weird phenomenon is a natural occurrence that only happens at the very bottom of the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean of Antarctica. Known as brinicles, these underwater icicles form when saline water leaks from cracks in the ocean floor. As saline is denser than the surrounding water, when it comes in contact with fresh water, it turns into a kind of liquid ice, as you can see in this video.
While it looks cool, it’s not great for any sea creatures nearby living on the ocean floor. The brinciles will slowly engulf everything close to them, often causing starfish, urchins, and other sea crustaceans to be frozen, hence the name “Icy Finger of Death.”
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8. Lake Michigan Stone Henge
Erected around 9,000 years ago, a similar stone arrangement to Stone Henge in England was discovered in Lake Michigan. Marc Holly, professor of underwater archeology at the Northwestern University of Michigan, and his colleague Brian Abbott are the men who found the weird structure. The two were searching for shipwrecks in 2007 when they came across what is being called the Lake Michigan Stone Henge.
40 feet below the surface, the stones are arranged in a similar circle to that of Stone Henge, with one stone apparently featuring a carving of a mastodon, an animal that has been extinct for over 10,000 years. While the structure is a major find, there are still questions as to whether it’s natural or man-made. Some believe it might be a prehistoric hunting structure, similar to others found in nearby Lake Huron.
9. Sinkhole Full of Skulls
A Mexican sinkhole feared by local villages was found to contain hundreds of human skulls dating back centuries. The natural cave system known as Sac Uayum is located in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and is a skull graveyard. Archeologists spent two weeks exploring two chambers filled with elongated Maya human skulls. The skulls belong to all different sexes and ages, so they aren’t thought to be sacrifices. Which begs the question, what are they doing buried deep underwater?
Archaeologist Bradley Russell, who made the discovery, believes the dead may have been buried as some form of ritual or that they could be the victims of a plague that swept through the area. “You wouldn’t want them near the rest of the population. And you wouldn’t want to drink the water either,” Russell explained.
10. The Baltic Sea Anomaly
A sonar image was taken by Peter Lindberg, Dennis Åberg, and their Swedish OceanX diving team while searching for treasure on the ocean floor in the Baltic Sea. What the picture showed was a seemingly non-natural, 200-foot circular object with passageways and stairs. The team believed it to be some kind of alien spacecraft, and it wasn’t long before the media picked this up and ran with it.
Samples taken from the area in 2012 were given to Swedish scientists who said that there was nothing extraterrestrial about the area. What OceanX and the crew had found was a weird, but natural rock formation that had nothing to do with aliens. Despite this evidence, many still think there is a UFO lying at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, with another expedition to the area planned soon.
11. Silfra Fissure
The Silfra Crack in Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park is an area of water that serves as the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. Every year it drifts around 0.7 inches apart and is a must-dive spot for underwater enthusiasts. Because of its location, scientists say that some of the cleanest water in the world can be found there, meaning visibility is always great. It remains a big tourist destination for divers.
12. Yonaguni Monument
Similar to the Baltic Sea Anomaly, the Yonaguni Monument was first thought to be some man-made underwater city or weird structure. But as is often the case, science proved that it is nothing more than a submerged rock formation that looks strange.
First discovered by a dive tour operator in 1985, it was marine geologist Masaaki Kimura who created a stir when he stated that the remains were man-made and possibly from some ancient Japanese Atlantis. Discussion about the origins of the area continues today, with some thinking it is a lost city and others believing it’s natural erosion that caused the city-like structures.
13. Black Sea Undersea River
That’s right, there is an underwater river within the Black Sea. Discovered by Leeds scientists in 2010, the river runs along the seabed and is created by salty water spilling into the main current and creating an entirely new water system. These channels run across the ocean floor and include waterfalls and large lake areas. The currents are super fast, making it hard to explore these large expanses of water.
14. Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon
Chuck Lagoon is a large area that makes up Micronesia where you can go diving amongst over 60 sunken ships. The nearby Truk island was once a Japanese naval base that was destroyed during World War II. All the battleships and various watercraft that were sunk when the island was bombed remain some 100 to 150 feet below the surface.
The wrecks you can discover include the popular Fujikawa Maru cargo ship, which has been overrun with colorful coral and underwater wildlife, three tanks that sank when the ship they were on was destroyed, and the I-169 “Shinohara” submarine that you can swim in and around.
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