Diving trip delivers unknown deep-sea reefs and underwater mountains
The deep sea is unknown territory. This is proven by an expedition to the Galapagos Islands, where previously unknown, untouched coral reefs with numerous species were discovered.
The biodiversity of the waters around the Galapagos Islands can at least compete with that on land - even if it is less famous and still completely unknown in large parts. This is shown by the images taken by the diving robot "SuBastian" during an expedition to the archipelago by the Schmidt Ocean Institute. Two previously unknown cold-water reefs and two underwater mountains that have not yet been precisely mapped were discovered, as the research institute reports.
It is only the second discovery of such an ecosystem in the Ecuadorian national park, after a research cruise by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in April 2023 detected a cold-water reef. The larger of the two reefs is over 800 metres long, while the second, smaller reef measures 250 metres in length. Both have a rich diversity of stony coral species. As a result, they have probably formed over thousands of years. They are located at a depth of between 370 and 420 metres.
One of the aims of the expedition was to use laser scanning to create extremely high-resolution maps of these reefs: The process is accurate to within two millimetres, meaning that even animals living on the seabed can be recorded, which would otherwise not be possible. In addition to the reefs, the team also surveyed two unknown seamounts and mapped them in high resolution. The existence of these seamounts was suspected on the basis of satellite data and has now been confirmed.
In another part of the expedition, the research vessel headed for the sea around Isla del Coco, a national park that belongs to Costa Rica but has close biological links to the Galapagos Islands. The underwater mountains between the two archipelagos can serve as a kind of stepping stone and help species to spread - perhaps even land animals and plants in earlier eras when the mountains still rose above the water. For example, Isla del Coco is home to a representative of the Darwin's finches, which are otherwise native to the Galapagos.
In both national parks, industrial fishing is prohibited, which is why the marine ecosystems are in very good condition. Among other things, there are good populations of various shark species, some of which congregate on the underwater mountains to reproduce.
Spectrum of Science
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© Schmidt Ocean Institute (detail) Deep-sea reefs like this one in the Galapagos archipelago have hardly been explored so far, but are home to many species, as can be seen here: corals, anemones, crabs and sea urchins are just some of them.
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