# video | Iridescent mineral towers found under piles of oceanic debris

In the course of various studies, scientists makeamazing discoveries that sometimes strike with their beauty. Recently, members of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, founded by Google founder Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy Schmidt, have discovered many mineral towers at the bottom of the Gulf of California. It is noteworthy that they were formed quite recently - this place was explored ten years ago, and then it was empty. Underwater beauty spoiled only a huge amount of garbage.

Researchers believe that minerals are formeddue to the fact that over the past 10 years many hydrothermal sources have appeared on this place. As a rule, minerals are formed during magmatic activity, namely its crystallization. Also, the cause of their formation is often chemical weathering - unstable substances are transformed into more stable ones.

It took a lot to descend to the bottom of the ocean.equipment. The organization of Eric Schmidt swam into place on her own ship, the RV Falkor, and used a SuBastian remote-controlled underwater vehicle to dive. To explore the underwater world, it is equipped with the Oxford Nanopore MinION genetic sequencing system. In addition to collecting samples of sediment, liquids and microbes, the researchers also took photographs and videotaped the mission.

Unfortunately, even in these remote and beautiful surroundings we saw a lot of garbage, including fishing nets, blown away mylar balls and even discarded Christmas trees.

Mandy Joy, University of Georgia Fellow

Huge amount of garbage once againreminded of the importance of keeping the environment clean. Unfortunately, water purification missions are not always effective - in 2018, The Ocean Cleanup project to clean up plastic waste from the Pacific was closed due to a number of problems.

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