Sharks discovered living inside underwater volcano

Ocean engineer Brennan Phillips led a team to the remote Solomon Islands in search of hydrothermal activity. They found plenty of activity—including sharks in a submarine volcano. The main peak of the volcano, called Kavachi, was not erupting during their expedition, so they were able to drop instruments, including a deep-sea camera, into the crater. The footage revealed hammerheads and silky sharks living inside, seemingly unaffected by the hostile temperatures and acidity.

Phillips said, “You never know what you're going to find. Especially when you are working deep underwater. The deeper you go, the stranger it gets.” They knew they would see interesting geology but weren't sure about the biology. “No one has ever looked in the deep sea there, period. No one's been out to anywhere in the Solomon Islands and gone deeper than a few hundred meters or deeper than a scuba diver has gone, really. So we were very excited. We thought there was a lot of potential.”

Video courtesy of National Geographic

Read more about Brennan's research in the Solomon Islands: http://goo.gl/Jpbs52

​Featured image credit: National Geographic