Photos: San Diego researchers find military munitions, explosives and more on Southern California ocean floor
Researchers from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography made revealing discoveries using sonar technology while surveying the ocean floor along the Southern California coast.
Oceanographers discovered aging military munitions, explosives and sunken whale carcasses across 135 square miles between Santa Catalina Island and Long Beach.
The team of Scripps oceanographers used a deep water autonomous underwater vehicle equipped with an HD camera. The same area was first surveyed in 2021 and revisited last April in hopes the team could identify the barrel-sized objects the found.
Researchers gathered more than 300 hours of video footage of the ocean floor, showing barrel-sized objects, military munitions and pyrotechnics.
The U.S. Navy believes the munitions likely date back to World War II, Scripps said.
Oceanographers also discovered seven whale carcasses, but say that sonar data may point to more than 60 existing in surveyed area.
What researchers found on the ocean floor:
