About 16 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel, raising from the seabed a number of impressive structures. They have been there for nearly 40,000 years, but until now had remained hidden in the murky depths of the Pacific Ocean.

A team of scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the University of California at Davis, University of Sydney and the University of Rhode Island, have identified a series of volcanoes of asphalt at the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel. (more…)