Microbiologist Samantha Joye, a veteran of many deep-ocean missions, describes the Blake Plateau as one of the most astonishingly diverse environments she has ever studied. During a dive in 2018 aboard the deep-sea submersible Alvin, she descended more than 2,000 meters into a world lit by bioluminescence.
“I have worked all over the place, and my mind was blown on the Blake Plateau. I mean, it’s just spectacularly diverse,” Joye tells the BBC.
But not far from that vibrant ecosystem, the ocean floor told a very different story.