NOAA Explorers Discover Asphalt Volcanoes in Gulf of Mexico

Posted on April 30, 2014

NOAA explorers discovered asphalt volcanoes while exploring the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico with their remotely operated vehicle, Deep Discoverer (D2), at a depth of 1,900 meters. The explorers expected to find a sunken ship. Instead they found an object in the shape of an enormous flower. The asphalt volcanoes form when material is expelled from deep within the Earth. An asphalt volcano is also known as a tar lily because of its flower-like shape.

NOAA explains how the underwater tar volcanoes form in a press release about the dive.

"A massive plug was squeezed out at the seafloor. It then split into separate extensions that continued to flow until they became brittle and cracked apart. Once the petals of the giant lily were in place, animals that like hard surfaces had a new home. People following the dive saw beautiful video of corals, barnacles, anemones, and fish. Bacteria that can utilize the oil as food generated a sulfur-based food chain for chemosynthetic tube worms and mats of other sulfur oxidizing bacteria."

A complete video from the dive can be found here on oceanexplorer.noaa.gov. The video below from KHOU 11 contains clips of the dive video showing the asphalt volcanoes. You can read KHOU 11's report on the amazing find here. Take a look:

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