By Tim Binnall
Researchers from NOAA were left scratching their heads when one of their underwater exploratory vehicles spotted a series of mysterious holes arranged in inexplicable lines along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The odd discovery reportedly occurred this past Saturday as the scientific agency's Okeanos Explorer ship was conducting dives near the Azores. At a depth of around 1.7 miles, their remotely operated vehicle caught sight of some curious markings in the ocean floor and, upon further inspection, found them to be eerily uniform in nature.
Sharing photos of the oddities online, NOAA explained that their vessel had seen "several" of the lines and indicated that "these holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery." Additional additional insights on Twitter, the agency observed that oceanic anomalies "look human made, but the little piles of sediment around them suggest they were excavated by ... something," before conceding that their scientists are "stumped" as to their source.
As one might imagine, the intriguing images spawned a number of theories from people online with some suggesting that they could have been created various different marine creatures, such as beaked whales or worms. Others argued that the holes were indicative of some kind of man-made device buried at the location or signs of a similar object that had been secretly removed prior to the arrival of the NOAA vessel. And, of course, there were a handful of people who simply pointed the finger at aliens. With that in mind, what do you think made the mysterious holes? Share your best guess with us at the C2C Facebook page.