A mysterious place at a depth of 3 km where octopuses end their life journey (6 photos)

What do you expect to see at a depth of several kilometers? That's right, nothing. Black all-encompassing emptiness without a single living soul. But then, scientists turn on the spotlights, direct it to the bottom and find... a field of octopuses! Hundreds and thousands of cephalopods lie almost motionless, as if bewitched. Is this a secret garden where they are all grown? Exactly!





Pink balls are not stones. These are octopuses lying with their tentacles up.

Scientists stumbled upon a sudden collection of mollusks in 2018 while plowing the waters near California. At a depth of 3 km and a modest heel of 2.5 hectares, tens of thousands of deep-sea octopuses are tightly entrenched. It took several dives by biologists, geologists and engineers to uncover the secret of the incomprehensible coven.



Octopus gardens are such an inaccessible place that robots had to be sent there.

Let's start with the fact that it is difficult for octopuses to live at the bottom. It's too cold there - the temperature is no more than 1-2 degrees. In such a dubak, cold-blooded mollusks become slow. This means that the chance of becoming lunch increases.





Welcome to the depths! A complete lack of entertainment and joy awaits you here! Make yourself comfortable!

Only those same two and a half hectares are not just a piece of the seabed. These are hot springs. Several cracks go to the very center of the Earth. The heat of the magma comes to the surface along with the flow of water, warming the bottom up to 5 degrees. It's not much, but enough to hack your own evolution! Cephalopods raise children on the warm bottom.



Cats five seconds after finding a warm place.

Clam eggs, like any other clutch, need warmth. This is not a problem for octopuses from the surface - their babies hatch in the sun-warmed waters in a matter of weeks. The young of deep-sea species do not have such luxury - even adults have difficulty surviving in the cold and dark depths. Geothermal springs are one of the few places where cephalopods can build a nest.



Oval capsules are octopus eggs.

Tens of thousands of shellfish arrive here from the depths. Males look for the warmest place for their future family, and females guard the clutch for up to four years! Without food or movement, in a defensive position upside down. All this time, selfless mothers do not leave their eggs even one step away.



- Darling, will you be with me until the end of days? - With heart and soul - no doubt! Body - hardly.

The picture that the baby octopuses see for the first time can only be imagined in a nightmare. Blackness, consuming space and time, piercing cold and the remains of a mother who has fulfilled her parental duty. Her body will be the first thing they taste. This is what I understand, kindergarten...