The search for shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Michigan yielded something scientists weren’t quite expecting: massive craters.
In 2022, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surveyed Lake Michigan with sonar inside the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, an area known as the final resting place of at least 36 shipwrecks. This mapping turned more mysterious when researchers noted large depressions spreading for miles, all roughly 450 feet below the surface.
Those unique spots remained a curiosity until August 2024 when scientists were able to get back down there with a remotely operated, subaquatic vehicle, allowing the researchers to explore the “perfect, little circles,” Steve Ruberg, scientist at the NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Of course, little is relative. The sinkholes stretch from 300 to 600 feet across. And just because there’s 40 in the one relatively small area, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more across the 22,000-square-mile lake.
In early investigations, the team noted freshwater shrimp and small, deepwater sculpin fish living in the craters, along with bacteria and invasive quagga mussels.
How the craters formed, how long they’ve been there, and just exactly what they are remains open for plenty of debate.
The search for shipwrecks at the bottom of Lake Michigan yielded something scientists weren’t quite expecting: massive craters.
In 2022, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration surveyed Lake Michigan with sonar inside the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, an area known as the final resting place of at least 36 shipwrecks. This mapping turned more mysterious when researchers noted large depressions spreading for miles, all roughly 450 feet below the surface.
Those unique spots remained a curiosity until August 2024 when scientists were able to get back down there with a remotely operated, subaquatic vehicle, allowing the researchers to explore the “perfect, little circles,” Steve Ruberg, scientist at the NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Of course, little is relative. The sinkholes stretch from 300 to 600 feet across. And just because there’s 40 in the one relatively small area, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty more across the 22,000-square-mile lake.
In early investigations, the team noted freshwater shrimp and small, deepwater sculpin fish living in the craters, along with bacteria and invasive quagga mussels.
How the craters formed, how long they’ve been there, and just exactly what they are remains open for plenty of debate.