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November 10, 2020: Tar Lily

During the Gulf of Mexico 2014 expedition, the team set out to explore a target suspected to be a shipwreck about 60 meters (197 feet) long. Within minutes of reaching the object, it became clear that this was not human-made, but a natural phenomenon that the team eventually nicknamed a “tar lily.” The feature was determined to be a much-unexpected flower-like extrusion of asphalt at the seafloor – the first of its kind documented in this area of the Gulf of Mexico.

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Exploration of the Gulf of Mexico 2014. Download larger version (jpg, 1.3 MB).

During the Gulf of Mexico 2014 expedition, the team set out to explore a target suspected to be a shipwreck about 60 meters (197 feet) long. Within minutes of reaching the object, it became clear that this was not human-made, but a natural phenomenon that the team eventually nicknamed a “tar lily.” The feature was determined to be a much-unexpected flower-like extrusion of asphalt at the seafloor — the first of its kind documented in this area of the Gulf of Mexico.

From: The Asphalt Ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico.