Ancient structure twice the size of world's tallest building discovered deep in the pacific

The world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is a staggering 2,722 ft tall.

That’s 829.8 metres, or just over half a mile, making London’s top skyscraper, the Shard, seem like a glorified bungalow (at 309.6 metres).

You might think anything of such an impressive stature would be pretty hard to miss. However, scientists have only just discovered an extinct volcano that is twice as high as the soaring jewel in Dubai’s crown.

The 5,250-foot-tall (1,600 metres) formation was found by ocean explorers while they were mapping the seabed off the coast of Guatemala.

Technically, it is a seamount – a massive underwater geological feature which typically forms from extinct volcanos, as Live Sciencenotes.

The researchers made the exciting discovery thanks to multibeam sonar mappingSchmidt Ocean Institute

The experts uncovered the towering marvel some 7,870 feet (2,400 m) below sea level during an expedition organised by the Schmidt Ocean Institute over the summer.

"A seamount over 1.5 kilometres tall which has, until now, been hidden under the waves really highlights how much we have yet to discover," Jyotika Virmani, the executive director of Schmidt Ocean Institute, said in a statement.

The cone-shaped feature covers 5.4 square miles (14 square kilometres) and is located in the Pacific Ocean, in international waters, 97 miles (156 kilometres) from Guatemalan waters.

The team made the exciting discovery thanks to multibeam sonar mapping during a six-day crossing from Costa Rica.

Seamounts serve as vital rocky habitats for deep-sea corals, sponges and invertebrates since the majority of the Earth’s seabeds are covered in loose, muddy sediment.

Satellite data suggests there are more than 100,000 unexplored seamounts that will be uncovered through ongoing seafloor mapping.

"A complete seafloor map is a fundamental element of understanding our ocean," Virmani said. "It's exciting to be living in an era where technology allows us to map and see these amazing parts of our planet for the first time.”

The Schmidt Ocean Institute is working alongside the Seabed 2030 project and other partners to map out the entire seafloor by the end of the decade.

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