Exploring South Carolina’s
Deep Sea Backyard
B
By Leslie Reynolds Sautter
rittlestars swim? Why are there so many fish heads on the seafloor?
Vertical walls of mud? Are those methane gas bubbles? What
is that crab eating? Could those rocks be manganese nodules?
What formed these massive 300-meter dune-like features of mud?
What the heck are those tar-like organisms on the seabed? Is that mound really a
100-meter pile of dead coral skeleton? What’s the identity of the shipwreck, and
where was it bound? What processes made these submarine canyon walls so steep?
Huge colonies of the stony coral, Lophelia pertusa
were found living at the tops of dead coral
skeleton mounds more than 100 meters high
(Depths: ~800 meters, 100 miles off
Jacksonville, Fla.)
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