Nowhere else on Earth is less explored by human beings than the oceans.
And that’s a problem because seventy-one percent of our planet is covered in water.
The deepest parts of the ocean are an even greater unknown for us, though, and many consider
the seafloor to be the last great frontier for Earth science.
There are mysteries there that we still haven’t even begun to understand… and these latest
images are a prime example.
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; did scientists
just discover alien tracks on the ocean floor?
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It was supposed to be a quite routine mission for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration - aka “NOAA”.
Dubbed the “Voyage to the Ridge 2022”, the plan is to get to know the Atlantic Ocean
better than ever before.
While so much of modern life has its eyes trained on space via NASA, this branch of
the American government is turned the other way.
NOAA deals in weather phenomena, yes, but it’s probably most famous for its ocean
study.
And while it almost never gets NASA-level publicity, it does make headlines every so
often… particularly when it finds something weird.
And these pictures are certainly that.
In late July 2022, NOAA posted two underwater images onto its Facebook page.
Both images show an eerily straight line of small holes continuing off into the distance.
These holes appear more than one-and-a-half miles below the Atlantic Ocean, though, and
no one knows how they got there.
Of course, you wouldn’t necessarily expect the sand and sediment this far down to be
pristine.
Even if we don’t know much as a species about the deep sea, we do know that it never
stays still and is always evolving!
But, nevertheless, scientists are understandably baffled by the sudden appearance of something
so seemingly regimented.
These holes aren’t there by accident; they must have a cause.
So, NOAA opened the floor to “answers in the comments”.
Needless to say, there have been a wide range of potential explanations put forward…
although most ideas, and most subsequent scientific discussion, is roughly split into two camps.
Either the holes have been made by something buried beneath the ocean floor…
or they’re due to something that’s happened on top of the ocean floor.
Some form of wildlife culprit is a candidate in both groups, with it reasonably easy to
imagine an ocean creature spending time making the holes - although the perfect straight
line is still disconcerting, and perhaps hints toward this not being the work of an animal.
In the original post, NOAA draws attention to the small piles of dirt that appear along
the edges of each of the holes, and on all sides.
Again, it’s debated whether this is dirt that’s been pushed up from below, or dug
out from above… but NOAA sets the “alternative” theories flying by writing; “while they
look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like
they were excavated by… something”.
The jury’s out as to what that “something” is, but in the same event that it isn’t
an animal… then “alien” is the next most popular answer.
There is no scientific evidence to support an alien cause here, but it’s perhaps easy
to see why people would so quickly jump to that conclusion.
Again, the ocean is famously under-explored.
We’ve been sailing atop of it for thousands of years, but we’ve never really gotten
to grips with what might be lurking underneath.
And so, whenever there are gaps in our knowledge - and, here, there are huge gaps - then an
alien theory invariably tries to plug those gaps.
In this case, the suggestions go from the straight-line marks being the leftovers of
an alien arrival… to them being indicative of an alien ship that’s buried beneath the
sand.
Really, though, this isn’t the first time that the idea of underwater aliens has been
floated.
Unidentified Submerged Objects (or, USOs) are a somewhat niche field in ufology, but
there are some famous cases.
In the late 1950s, a fishing crew in Japan reportedly saw two shimmering, near-identical
somethings plunge from the sky and into the sea, never to be seen again.
More than sixty years later, and a cruise liner captain, Kate McCue, became briefly
famous on social media when she filmed a dark object seemingly drop from the sky, into the
ocean, and beneath the waves, just a short distance away from her boat.
And, in recent times, we’ve become accustomed to reports coming out of the US Navy, featuring
unidentified objects on (or just above) the sea.
The most famous case of all, however, probably comes from Russia.
Following the declassification of a cache of documents in 2009, an incredible story
emerged, set in the icy heart of Siberia.
In 1982, at the world’s deepest freshwater lake, Lake Baikal, it’s claimed that a team
of Soviet divers saw not just a USO… but actual alien beings.
While on a training exercise, it’s said that the divers were stunned to come across
multiple, nine or ten-feet tall humanoids, floating far beneath the surface, and seemingly
without any oxygen supply or recognisable diving gear.
When they went to confront the beings, however, the Soviets were invisibly blocked and sharply
propelled back through the water at dangerous speeds.
Three of the divers reportedly died due to the sudden decompression, while the other
four were badly injured - and unwilling to speak more about the encounter from that moment
onwards.
Today, it’s a strange and tragic episode that goes down as one of the most infamous
and intriguing alien encounter stories out there.
Fortunately for NOAA, nothing quite so unusual, alarming or deadly took place on their latest
dive, during which the most recent “straight line hole” images were captured.
And, in fact, there are no official claims of anything untoward (or extraterrestrial)
at all.
The images were taken as part of an ongoing project - the “Voyage to the Ridge” - to
remotely monitor the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a huge and sprawling plate boundary that cuts
the Atlantic Ocean in two.
Even without the suggestion of aliens, however, there is a great deal of interest in what
might be found during these dives.
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge technically contains the world’s longest mountain range; it hosts
plenty of volcanoes, and is a major earthquake center; and there are genuine valleys and
colossal craters to investigate.
Although the first parts of it were discovered back in the 1850s, it wasn’t properly mapped
to any standard until the 1950s… and we still have a long way to go until we completely
understand it.
Perhaps by the 2050s, we will finally have a decent knowledge base.
Until then, it’s an exciting time.
It figures that there’s a lot of nature to unearth here, including ancient coral systems,
much of which will never have been seen by humans before.
The Ridge was formed in its current state as part of the breakup of the one-time supercontinent,
Pangea, too, around 200 million years ago.
So there’s certainly plenty of history to explore here… and breakthroughs that are
just waiting to be made.
Again, it all adds to a general sense of the unknown whenever we head underwater.
As members of a species that’s only walked this world for the past few hundred thousand
years, the true age of the ocean is difficult for us humans to comprehend.
The changes it has undergone, and the secrets it has still to yield, are for the most part
beyond our imagining.
But, even so, what’s your verdict on this particular ocean oddity?
NOAA itself concedes that the origin of these holes “remains a mystery”... but the only
thing that’s perhaps almost certain is that they didn’t get there by chance.
The path is too straight, the gaps between the holes are too seemingly similar, and the
area around them is too apparently untouched by comparison.
Something’s happening here, but what?
The “Journey to the Ridge” is an ongoing mission for NOAA, and it’s a case of “watch
this space” for the next mystery it uncovers.
Again, NOAA rarely gets the fanfare of some other scientific organizations - particularly
NASA - but its work is no less vital.
Of course, we’re all in favor of learning more and more about the universe…
but there’s still plenty to learn about just our world within it, too.
For now, where do these bizarre ocean photos leave us?
OK, so scientists probably haven’t just discovered alien tracks on the ocean floor,
no matter how many theories claim otherwise… but what have they found?
It’s a discovery that’s still waiting for an explanation!
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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