(CNN) — The remains of the Titanic lie in two places at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, slowly disintegrating about 4,000 meters below the surface. But they are not alone there. A sound was detected about 26 years ago, which showed that this underwater region is much larger than previously thought.
PH Nargeolet, a veteran pilot of the Nautical Submersible and research diver on the Titanic, originally detected sound with a nautical sounder in 1996. However, the origin of the event remained unanswered … until now.
The remains of the Titanic lie about 4,000 meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, north of Newfoundland. credit: Javier Desmeier/Gamma-Rafo/Getty Images
Earlier this year on an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, Narjolet and four other researchers headed to the site where sound was previously recorded to search for the mysterious object that caused it. Due to the magnitude of the sound, Nargolett believed that it might have been another shipwreck, but instead they found a rocky reef, formed from various volcanic formations, and lobsters, a deep-sea fish. , was filled with different species of sponges and corals. There are thousands of years.
“It’s biologically fascinating. The animals that live there are very different from those living in the plain of the ocean abyss,” said Murray Roberts, professor of applied marine biology and ecology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and one of the researchers . of campaign. “(Nargolet) did some really important scientific work. They thought it was a shipwreck, and it turned out to be, in my opinion, even more surprising than a shipwreck.”
Abyssal plain is the term used to describe the ocean floor at depths of 3,000 to 4,000 meters, which, according to Roberts, makes up 60% of the Earth’s surface. It is believed to be a featureless, muddy sea floor without any structure. On a few occasions, divers have seen rock formations in the plain of this abyss. Since the recent discovery near the Titanic, Roberts now believes such features may be more common than previously thought.
Rocky areas may also help explain the distances that sponges and corals travel across the ocean floor, which has always been a mystery to scientists. In the muddy environments in which they are often seen, these species have few hard surfaces for growth and reproduction.
“Sometimes they show up in places where we think, ‘Okay, how did they get there? They don’t stay there long enough to get there,'” Roberts said. “But if there are more of these rocky places than we thought, I think it could help us understand the distribution of these species throughout the ocean.”
The researchers are currently working on analyzing images and videos taken of the reef during their dive, and intend to share their findings to improve the scientific community’s understanding of deep-sea life. Roberts also hopes to link this discovery to a larger project on the Atlantic Ocean ecosystem he directs, called iAtlantic, which will further study and protect the reef’s fragile ecosystem.
Titanic has another unknown voice that Nargolet hopes to identify on a future expedition. It was recorded in the same survey they did years ago between the wreck of the Titanic and the newly discovered rock, now known as Nargolet-Fanning Ridge in his honor, and Oisin Fanning, a 2022 expedition specialist. Nargolet hopes that once the mystery is uncovered, it will be bigger than this rock.
The Oceangate expedition and its foundation, which, along with Fanning, provided financial support for the Nargolet dive this year, will continue its longitudinal investigations of Titanic and surrounding areas into 2023.
“The sea life … It was so beautiful. It was really amazing, because I never expected to see it in my life,” said Narjolet. “I would be very happy to continue watching Titanic.”
