The Yellow Brick Road at the Bottom of the Pacific - A Pathway to the Unknown?

I came across an article this week that piqued my interest. It’s something I’ve seen before - it was originally reported in 2022, and granted, I’m sure for most publications, it’s just a repost to generate more ad revenue. But all the same, it got me thinking about the topic in a bit more depth than before and I learnt a lot along the way.

Deep beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in the shadowy depths where few dare to venture, lies a mysterious road - a strange, golden-bricked pathway stretching across the seafloor. It looks as though it was laid by an ancient civilization, a lost world hidden beneath the waves, waiting to be discovered. Some might call it a road to Atlantis, a relic of an advanced time long forgotten. Others whisper of myths, of gods who once walked these pathways before the ocean claimed them.

But what if I told you this was no human creation?

The Power of Myth - Lost Cities and Ancient Roads

Throughout history, the ocean has been the backdrop for some of our most enduring myths. From the legendary city of Atlantis to the lost continent of Mu, even H. P. Lovecraft’s entirely fictional entity Cthulhu, humans have long speculated about civilizations swallowed by the sea. Could this strange path be a remnant of something we once knew but have since forgotten?

Similar discoveries have fueled such speculation. The Yonaguni Monument off the coast of Japan, for instance, is a series of underwater rock formations that some believe to be the ruins of an ancient city. Others insist they are simply the work of natural erosion (or most likely natural in any case). The Yellow Brick Road of the Pacific joins this club of enigmatic deep-sea structures that blur the line between nature and lost history.

The Discovery - A Journey into the Deep

In 2022, researchers aboard the E/V Nautilus stumbled upon this uncanny formation while exploring the Liliʻuokalani Ridge Seamounts, north of Hawaii. The team was using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to map the seafloor when they came across what appeared to be a neatly paved road. The team captured the footage and you can view it on YouTube below, the Yellow Brick Road appears around the 1:40 mark.

The internet, obviously, went wild. Speculation ran rampant - was this the work of an unknown long forgotten civilization, a hidden path leading somewhere mysterious, or even a sign of alient activity? The sheer precision of the "bricks" seemed too perfect to be natural, as if someone - or something - had carefully laid them out centuries ago.

The Science Behind the Illusion

Yet, as with most deep-sea mysteries, science provides a different - though no less fascinating explanation.

This so-called "Yellow Brick Road" is actually a formation of hyaloclastite rock, a specific type of a volcanic rock formed in high-energy eruptions where many rock fragments settle to the seabed. The intense thermal shock causes the rock to fracture into polygonal shapes, creating the illusion of carefully placed bricks.

This process is surprisingly common in the Pacific, especially around volcanic hotspots. The region where the "road" was found is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area teeming with underwater volcanic activity. Similar formations have been observed in places like Iceland and Hawaii, where cooling lava produces striking geometric patterns.

Why Deep-Sea Exploration Matters

While this road may not lead to Oz (or even to Atlantis for that), it does highlight just how little we know about the ocean. More than 80% of the ocean remains unexplored, and every year, scientists uncover bizarre new formations, species, and ecosystems that defy expectations.

Deep-sea exploration has already revealed hydrothermal vents (fissures in the ocean floor commonly found near volcanically active places) that do support alien-like creatures, lakes of super-salty water on the ocean floor, and ancient shipwrecks frozen in time. Deep-sea exploration is something that has always utterly fascinated me and I'm not alone. Who’s to say we won’t one day find something that truly rewrites history?

So What Else is Waiting to be Discovered?

This time, science solved the mystery - but the ocean still holds countless secrets. Could there be real remnants of lost civilizations hiding beneath the waves? Are there other strange, unexplained structures waiting to be uncovered? Could alternate forms of life have been here on our planet all along?

The next great discovery might not be in space but in the depths of our own planet. And who knows? Maybe the real Yellow Brick Road is still out there, just waiting for someone to follow it to the truth...