TAIPEI — Reuters Last updated on Thursday, Apr. 09, 2009 09:46PM EDT
A biodiversity researcher has found a huge basalt rock formation in the Taiwan Strait, resembling a city wall and rivalling similar monoliths on land.
The 200 metre-long, 10 metre-high undersea wall, which looks like thousands of pillars packed together, is near the Pescadores archipelago, researcher Jeng Ming-hsiou of the state-run Academia Sinica said on Monday.
Prof. Jeng was diving in the area when he saw and filmed the wall, about 40 kilometres west of Taiwan's main island.
“It was completely unexpected,” Prof. Jeng said. “It's not easy to see these formations underwater.”
Basalt walls such as the famed Giant's Causeway on the coast of Ireland and the Wairere Boulders of New Zealand are known to have occurred on land but have seldom been found at sea.
The Taiwan Strait formation, which local media have compared to a city wall, most likely began with a volcanic eruption as far back as 1,800 years ago, Prof. Jeng said.
Join the Discussion: