The Titanic wreck has an incredible neighbor you probably don't know about - one which baffled scientists for 26 years.
While the site of the ship wreckage is located around 13,000ft below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, you might be surprised to find out that it shares the space with something that was long a mystery.
When Paul Henri Nargeolet first recorded a blip on sonar around 28 years ago, he was stumped as to what it could be.
The late Titanic diver speculated that it was possible another ship had sunk near the famous vessel.
It wasn’t until he finally traveled down to the bottom of the ocean that he discovered the truth for himself.
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Nargeolet took part in the 2022 Titanic Expedition to explore the cause of the sonar blip. The mission was run by OceanGate, the same company that suffered a fatal disaster during their submersible trip to view the Titanic wreck last year.
Nargeolet was one of the five men who lost their lives in the incident.
A year prior, he uncovered a dense ecosystem thriving over 9,500ft deep in an abyssal deep sea reef located near the Titanic wreck.
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Speaking at the time, Nargeolet said: “We didn’t know what we would discover. On the sonar, this could have been any number of things including the potential of it being another shipwreck.
“I’ve been seeking the chance to explore this large object that appeared on sonar so long ago. It was amazing to explore this area and find this fascinating volcanic formation teeming with so much life.”
OceanGate Expeditions’ chief scientist Dr Steve W Ross also said: “We are astonished at the diversity and density of the sponges, bamboo corals, other coldwater corals, squat lobsters and fishes that are thriving at 2,900m deep in the North Atlantic Ocean.
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“The variety of life-forms, concentration of life and the overall ecosystems may differ between the deep artificial reef of the Titanic and this newly revealed natural deep ocean reef.”
A video of the geologic feature was uploaded to YouTube by the company in 2022, with a description that read: “The green lines seen in the video are part of the laser imaging system we use aboard Titan. This helps researchers get a sense of the scale of things they are seeing through the viewport of Titan and as they are reviewing the footage in the coming weeks and months.
“This provides accurate readings on the sizes of the flora and fauna we see. The distance between the two spots is 10 centimeters.”