Monkfish Sits on Geometric Columnar Basalt, Nautilus Live

ROV Hercules captured this footage of stunning deep sea columnar basalt while diving on ancient volcanos around 1, 700 meters deep in a canyon North of Molokai. Basalt is an igneous rock that, as lava, cools in a particular way that creates these unique hexagonal columns. Keep watching, and youll even glimpse a monkfish (also known as a goosefish) sitting on these geological wonders. These anglerfishes in the family Lophiidae are always crowdpleasers due to their grumpy looking facial expressions. The Hawaiian Islands are part of the oldest, longest, and most remote island chains on Earth, and have been a key natural laboratory for many important scientific discoveries. This 14day telepresenceenabled expedition (NA156) is conducting ROV surveys across some of the most dramatic deepsea habitats surrounding the Main Hawaiian Islands, and testing a new widefield camera array system across a wide range of complex topographical features. Learn more about this expedition funded by the Office of