An underwater mountain about four times the height of the Burj Khalifa has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean, around 1,448 kilometres off Chile’s coast. The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s oceanographers studied the 3,109-meter seamount during a 28-day mission aboard the research vessel R/V Falkor.
Using sonar technology, they constructed a precise map of the seafloor, which is still largely unexplored, with only 26% surveyed in this manner.
This seamount is part of a marine biodiversity hotspot that includes ancient corals, sponge gardens, and recently discovered species like a ghostly white octopus known as “Casper” and the first-ever footage of a live Promachoteuthis squid. Two unusual Bathyphysa siphonophores were also observed.
Jyotika Virmani, the institute’s executive director, noted that the discovery advances our understanding of deep-sea ecosystems, which are critical habitats for a variety of marine life. The mission mapped 25 seamounts, providing data for the region’s preservation under a future United Nations convention.
The team’s previous excursions uncovered 150 undiscovered species, with another 20 species perhaps discovered during this journey. These findings will be shared with the Ocean Census, a global program that aims to catalogue 100,000 undiscovered species over the next decade.
