Conversation

Continuing with the theme of colors that normally go unseen, this purple sea cucumber in the family Synallactidae caught the team’s eye as a pop of color against the grey seafloor of manganese nodules seen throughout the seamount chain. Nodules are created by the precipitation of manganese out of the water column over time and the rate of precipitation is well documented meaning the thickness of a manganese crust gives geologists a rough estimate on the age of these geologic formations.