Remote seamounts in the southeast Pacific may be home to 20 new species
The intersection of the Nazca and Salas y Gómez Ridges is a deep-sea biodiversity hot spot
By Jake Buehler
Some 1,400 kilometers off the coast of Chile, rare deep-sea creatures drift along a garden of sponges and corals that grow along the flanks of a 3,100-meter-tall undersea mountain.
A monthlong survey of mountain ecosystems in the remote seas of the southeastern Pacific Ocean has not only turned up a never-before-seen seamount but also revealed many species of sea life possibly new to science. Eighty species were observed in this part of the ocean for the first time, the Schmidt Ocean Institute in Palo Alto, Calif., announced August 28 in a news release.