Canyon Wonderland

An underwater robot documents the strange denizens of Mar del Plata Canyon

- Ashley Balzer Vigil

TWO MILES BELOW the ocean's surface off the coast of Argentina, a gorge plunges nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. The canyon and the nearby ocean floor are crawling with creatures that look like they belong in an alien carnival, including a see-through squid with a hornlike collection of arms (top left), pale pink lobsters, a lumbering king crab carrying 100 hitchhiking barnacles, and an intricate floating siphonophore (bottom right).

This past July and August, scientists onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor (too) spotted the oddities through the eyes of an underwater robot as they explored the Mar del Plata Canyon. Over the course of three weeks the team recorded many strange and startling sights, including more than 40 species that may be new to science.

"The deep sea is a place full of life, not only in terms of abundance but also in the variety of species," says the expedition's chief scientist, Daniel Lauretta of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences.