'Lost City' Deep in the Atlantic Like Nothing Else We've Ever Seen on Earth

Deep sea has fascinated people since time immemorial (Amaze Lab)
Deep sea has fascinated people since time immemorial (Amaze Lab)
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'Lost City' Deep in the Atlantic Like Nothing Else We've Ever Seen on Earth

Deep sea has fascinated people since time immemorial (Amaze Lab)
Deep sea has fascinated people since time immemorial (Amaze Lab)

The reality of what lies within our oceans has fascinated people since time immemorial, so it’s no wonder we’ve created countless myths about the watery depths.

But step aside, Atlantis, scientists have discovered a real Lost City beneath the waves, and this one is teaming with life.

The rocky, towering landscape is located west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge mountain range, hundreds of meters below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, and consists of massive walls, columns and monoliths stretching more than 60 meters tall, according to The Independent.

To be clear, it’s not the home of some long-forgotten human civilization, but that doesn’t make its existence any less significant, it said.

The hydrothermal field, dubbed the “Lost City” upon its discovery in the year 2,000, is the longest-lived venting environment known in the ocean, Science Alert reports.

Nothing else like it has ever been found on Earth, and experts think it could offer an insight into ecosystems that could exist elsewhere in the universe.

For more than 120,000 years, snails, crustaceans and microbial communities have fed off the field’s vents, which spout out hydrogen, methane and other dissolved gases into the surrounding water.

Despite the absence of oxygen down there, larger animals also survive in this extreme environment, including crabs, shrimps and eels. Although, they are, admittedly, rare.

The hydrocarbons produced by its vents were not created by sunlight or carbon dioxide, but by chemical reactions way down on the seafloor.

The tallest of the Lost City’s monoliths has been named Poseidon, after the Greek god of the sea, and it measures more than 60 meters high.

Meanwhile, just northeast of the tower, is a cliffside where the vents “weep” with fluid, producing “clusters of delicate, multi-pronged carbonate growths that extend outward like the fingers of upturned hands,” according to researchers at the University of Washington.



Floodwaters Still Threaten Parts of Australia’s East Coast as Tropical Storm Cleanup Begins 

Flooded houses are seen in Oxley, in Brisbane, Australia, 10 March 2025. (EPA) 
Flooded houses are seen in Oxley, in Brisbane, Australia, 10 March 2025. (EPA) 
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Floodwaters Still Threaten Parts of Australia’s East Coast as Tropical Storm Cleanup Begins 

Flooded houses are seen in Oxley, in Brisbane, Australia, 10 March 2025. (EPA) 
Flooded houses are seen in Oxley, in Brisbane, Australia, 10 March 2025. (EPA) 

Australia's prime minister cautioned that the fallout from a vicious tropical storm over the weekend was “far from over” as parts of two states remained inundated with perilous floodwaters on Monday, even as the initial threat from the deluge continued to recede.

One person was killed and several others injured after heavy rain lashed Australia's east coast on Saturday, toppling trees and power lines and inundating some parts of Queensland and New South Wales with record downpours. The two states escaped the level of chaos forecast from the tropical low weather system, which was earlier expected to make landfall as the first tropical cyclone to hit southeast Queensland in 51 years — before weakening as it approached.

Still, 200,000 homes and businesses were without power in the region on Monday afternoon — after the storm prompted the biggest blackout in Queensland's history — and more than 700 schools were closed for the day.

Those living near rivers and creeks were urged to evacuate or stay indoors as water levels continued to rise in some areas — with more rain forecast triggering further warnings during the day. Disaster was declared for the city of Ipswich, west of Brisbane, where a river was expected to flood overnight. People in surrounding suburbs were ordered to leave their homes.

Meanwhile, in other towns where floodwaters began to recede a cleanup began as power was restored for tens of thousands of people. The scale of the damage was not immediately clear.

Workers whose livelihoods were hampered by the storm will be eligible for welfare payments for up to 13 weeks beginning Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Monday.

In the city of Lismore in New South Wales, two military trucks helping with the rescue efforts on Saturday rolled over, injuring 13 of the 36 personnel travelling in them. One remained in hospital on Monday with injuries that were not life-threatening, Australia's Defense Minister Richard Marles said.

The single casualty of the crisis was a 61-year-old man who disappeared in a flooded river near the New South Wales town of Dorrigo, police said. His body was recovered on Saturday.

Albanese warned residents of the two stricken states not to be “complacent” as flood warnings lingered.

“If it's flooded, forget it,” he said, referring to traveling in or entering inundated areas.

Cyclones are common in Queensland’s tropical north but are rare in the state’s temperate and densely populated southeast corner that borders New South Wales. Tropical Cyclone Alfred was last week expected to become the first cyclone since 1974 to cross the Australian coast near Queensland's state capital of Brisbane, Australia’s third-most populous city.

But it weakened Saturday to a tropical low, defined as carrying sustained winds of less than 63 kph (39 mph).

Authorities had feared similar scenes to those eastern Australia experienced during massive floods in 2011 and in a series of 2022 events — in which more than 20 people died.