by Ocean explorers mapping the seabed off the coast of Guatemala have discovered a mountain twice as high as the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, hiding deep beneath the waves.
The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 meters) formation is a seamount — a large, underwater geological feature typically formed from an extinct volcano.
Scientists discovered the cone-shaped seamount 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute this summer, according to a statement shared with Live Science.
The towering feature covers 5.4 square miles (14 square kilometers) and sits in international waters in the Pacific Ocean, 97 miles (156 kilometers) from Guatemalan waters.
The researchers detected the seamount using multibeam sonar mapping during a six-day crossing from Costa Rica to the East Pacific Rise — the boundary between six tectonic plates, including the Pacific plate to the west and the North American plate to the northeast.
Source
The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 meters) formation is a seamount — a large, underwater geological feature typically formed from an extinct volcano.
Scientists discovered the cone-shaped seamount 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organized by the Schmidt Ocean Institute this summer, according to a statement shared with Live Science.
The towering feature covers 5.4 square miles (14 square kilometers) and sits in international waters in the Pacific Ocean, 97 miles (156 kilometers) from Guatemalan waters.
The researchers detected the seamount using multibeam sonar mapping during a six-day crossing from Costa Rica to the East Pacific Rise — the boundary between six tectonic plates, including the Pacific plate to the west and the North American plate to the northeast.
Source
