Sometimes , reality bites . Our political organization is in shuffling , our substructure is collapsing , and now , youcan’t even enjoy Kanye ’s new album(were you ever really go to , though ? ) . Game of Thronesisn’t coming back until 2019 , andcolonizing Mars continue a pipe dream .
We do have a clump of ridiculously cool footage of the ocean floor , though .
Scientists with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration ’s Okeanos Explorer have spent the better part of the last month using a outside operated vehicle to explore variousdeep sea localesin the Gulf of Mexico , sending back fantastic imagery to the surface . The expedition is a reexamination to an explorative survey late last year that revealed all sort of wild seafloor habitat , includingliquid asphalt seepsand salty underwater “ lakes”called brine pools .
NOAA’s latest deep-sea diving expedition encounteredholothuroids(sea cucumbers) that, despite their common name, are anything but vegetables. This particulardeep-sea holothuroidis getting his groove on with a rhythmic dance that keeps it afloat in the water column.Gif: Brian Kahn/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018
The 2018 missionary post , which began April 11 and ends on Thursday , has offered some unbelievable glimpses into the biology of the deep sea , fromsediment - munching sea cucumberstoshipwrecks cower with octopus . scientist also caught a glimpse of a creature that look directly out of Ridley Scott ’s Alien and which a marine biologistdescribed as“probably the most gonzo squid I ’ve ever seen . ”
In add-on to the charismatic creatures , co - science jumper lead Adam Skarke spotlight the foreign surroundings Okeanos explored during the recent dive , include a brine pond and relic brine falls in the Gulf of Mexico .
“ Not only do brine puddle and waterfall seem really cool , like consistence of water on the seafloor , they also support chemosynthetic ecosystems , in which the entire food chain is based on synthesis of chemicals emitted from the seafloor rather than sunlight , ” Skarke tell Earther in an email .
Please enjoy this squid, which is doing its darndest to look like an alien sentinel.Gif: Brian Kahn/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018
The last dive , on Wednesday , immerse viewers into undiscovered sinkholes just off the Florida Keys . Skarke said exploration of these sinkholes “ has already touch off a salutary mountain of discussion among a routine of nautical geologist ” about how they could have formed .
you may keep an eye on all four hours of the footage from that recent divehere(mostly barren , drivel - free views of the Davy Jones’s locker , it ’s really quite assuasive ) . If that ’s a scrap too scummy - keystone for your workday , though , we ’ve collected some of our favored critter from the 2018 expedition below .
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This sea cucumber’s tube feet, or podia, allow it to ingest little gulps of seafloor sediment, which it then extracts tasty organic matter and nutrients from.Gif: Brian Kahn/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018
