At the bottom of the ocean, just off the coast
of California, there is an underwater phenomenon that has been
puzzling scientists.
Unlike other areas of the sea floor, this one is
covered in deep holes and no one really knows how
they got there.
It's been named the Sur Pockmark Field as it's just
off the coast of Big Sur, and the historical theory
has been that the holes were caused by methane gas
release.
However, during a recent probe to see the area's viability
for a wind farm, experts say they have found little
evidence of methane.
So what's going on?
The Sir Pockmark field is located at depths ranging from
around 1600 to around 5000 feet underwater, and there are
more than 5200 of these holes covering an area the
size of Los Angeles, with each one on average around
574 feet wide.
Now, after a significant data collection.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Stanford University experts
believe they have an idea about what caused these holes.
They say the holes are located on top of a
continental slope, and the samples they have collected over revealed
that large amounts of sediment has slid downward.
Part of this could have been caused by an ancient
earthquake some 14,000 years ago, resulting in a slope collapse
that they say could have eroded the center of each
of these pockmarks.
With the researchers adding, we were unable to determine exactly
how these pockmarks were initially formed, But with MB Aris
Advanced Underwater Technology, we've gained new insight into how and
why these features have persisted on the sea floor for
hundreds of thousands of years.