Shipwreck search yields surprise discovery: Underwater volcano of asphalt

Shipwreck search yields surprise discovery: Underwater volcano of asphalt

Underwater robots exploring shipwrecks that sank centuries ago off the coast of Galveston have discovered something scientists never expected to find: a strangely shaped structure that’s basically a spectacular tar ball.

Inside a command center at Texas A&M Galveston, a team of archeologists, marine biologists and other experts have been coordinating the exploration of three sunken ships lying beneath more than a mile of seawater roughly 175 miles off the Texas coast. Artifacts discovered on the sites include anchors, dishes, cannon and even a clock apparently lost in some sort of disaster at sea about two centuries ago.

Another site spotted by scientists appeared to be another shipwreck, but cameras mounted on underwater vehicles discovered something else.

“It looked like a shipwreck,” said Thomas Heathman, a marine biology student working on the project. “Definitely. And then once we get down there, we see this structure that we’ve never seen before. Never seen anything like it in the northern Gulf of Mexico.”

Viewed from above, the discovery looked something like a display of black palm fronds shooting up from the floor of the Gulf. Clinging to the structure was a plethora of colorful marine life.
At first, they thought it must have been a man-made object. But as their underwater cameras beamed back pictures of the blackened structure and the creatures thriving around it, they came to the conclusion it was essentially a solidified eruption from an underwater volcano of asphalt.

Original Article

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