Deep down in the Pacific Ocean, scientists have found an odd "yellow brick road." It was discovered in the north of the Hawaiian islands and instantly had experts baffled as to how and when the brick managed to get so far down into the sea. Here's what they know so far.
The weird road was stumbled upon by the members aboard the Exploration Vessel Nautilus after the crew used a remotely operated vehicle to take a closer look at the Lili’uokalani Ridge Seamounts on the island of Hawaii. Originally the plan was to analyze a split in the seamount trail since there are still many unanswered questions about the origin of thousands of seamounts in the central and western Pacific oceans. During this investigation is when the researchers came across the yellow brick road that was obviously made by man since it was constructed out of the rectangular-shaped bricks often used above water.
The trip down to the bottom of the ocean was being documented on video, so the entire interaction was caught on tape and shared on Youtube. One researcher can be heard quipping, "It's the road to Atlantis." Another questioned, "The yellow brick road?" It was clear they were in disbelief at what they were looking at. "This is bizarre. Are you kidding me? This is crazy," another crew member added.
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Despite the many jokes made down in the comments about how it was probably left behind by Dorthy from The Wizard of Oz, or perhaps even aliens, there was a reasonable explanation as to how the brick road could have ended up there. According to the description of the video, the formation is "an example of ancient active volcanic geography." The explanation went on, "At the summit of Nootka Seamount, the [Nautilus] team spotted a "dried lake bed" formation, now IDed as a fractured flow of hyaloclastite rock (a volcanic rock formed in high-energy eruptions where many rock fragments settle to the seabed)." So why did the geographic formation look so much like something we would probably see on land? Well, due to the volcanic eruptions, the resemblance may be "related to heating and cooling stress."
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