Undersea Mountain Taller Than Mount Olympus Discovered Off Chile’s Coast
A team of oceanographers discovered a massive undersea mountain off the coast of Chile that is higher than Greece’s Mount Olympus.
The seamount, which rises nearly 1.9 miles above the Pacific Ocean floor, was found during a 28-day expedition led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute of California.
The newly discovered peak, located about 900 miles from the South American coast, hosts a vibrant ecosystem, home to numerous rare and previously undocumented marine species. Among the unique findings were sponge gardens, ancient corals, and rare creatures such as the Promachoteuthis squid, which was filmed alive for the first time, and the ghostly white “Casper Octopus,” a species never before seen in the southern Pacific.
The team utilized advanced sonar technology aboard the R/V Falkor vessel to map the seafloor and identify the seamount.
“Sound waves go down and they bounce back off the surface, and we measure the time it takes to come back and get measured. From that, we get a really good idea of the seabed topography,” explained Jyotika Virmani, the institute’s executive director.
This discovery is part of a larger effort to explore and map the ocean floor, of which only 26% has been mapped to high resolution despite covering 71% of the Earth’s surface. The expedition’s findings add to the growing body of evidence supporting the Nazca Ridge as a potential marine protected area under a new United Nations treaty ratified in 2023.
The Schmidt Ocean Institute’s recent expeditions have resulted in the identification of over 170 previously unknown species in the region, with details set to be included in the Ocean Census, a global initiative aimed at cataloging 100,000 unknown marine species within the next decade.
ABC News, New York Post and CNN contributed to the report.
