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Mysterious trail of holes in the seafloor perplexes scientists

Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022.
Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Voyage to the Ridge 2022.

A voyage to the bottom of the ocean has reignited a scientific mystery that has stumped scientists around the world: Who or what is punching tiny holes in neat rows along the seafloor?

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spotted the holes last month during a mission to explore a submarine mountain chain called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Researchers are so eager to crack this mystery that they’re asking for theories from the public.

Here & Now‘s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Michael Vecchione, a research zoologist with NOAA Fisheries’ National Systematics Laboratory.

Watch on YouTube.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.