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Scientists find vast whale graveyard in Indian Ocean
NDTV··11 Jun
Chinese scientists discovered what may be the world's largest, deepest and oldest whale graveyard in the southeastern Indian Ocean. The site stretches about 1,200 km across the Diamantina Fracture Zone and includes fossils dating back up to 5.3 million years.
Prism
What It Means For You
- The discovery shows how much of Earth's deep ocean remains unexplored and scientifically surprising.
- Whale carcasses can support entire ecosystems for long periods, turning death into deep-sea habitat and food.
- Understanding whale falls can improve knowledge of carbon storage, evolution and biodiversity in extreme environments.
What's Happening
- Researchers found a huge whale necropolis west of Australia in the Indian Ocean.
- The site includes fossils up to 5.3 million years old and hundreds of documented whale-fall locations.
- Scientists observed organisms such as jellyfish, brittle stars, crustaceans, bivalves and bone-boring worms.
Life Around Whale Falls
- When whales die and sink, their bodies deliver rare nutrient pulses to the deep sea.
- These carcasses can host specialised species and connect isolated deep-sea ecosystems.
- The Diamantina Fracture Zone's trenches may have funnelled carcasses into the same basin over millions of years.
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