A million giant eggs just emerged from an underwater volcano

It began as an ordinary deep-sea expedition off the coast of Vancouver Island, but what scientists found below the waves was anything but ordinary. In the cold, dark depths of the Pacific, an underwater volcano revealed a living secret: a vast field of shimmering, pillow-shaped egg cases.

It began as an ordinary deep-sea expedition off the coast of Vancouver Island, but what scientists found below the waves was anything but ordinary. In the cold, dark depths of the Pacific, an underwater volcano revealed a living secret — a vast field of shimmering, pillow-shaped egg cases. Researchers have suggested the number could be in the hundreds of thousands, possibly up to around a million, clustered on the volcano’s warmer slopes.¹

The discovery has stunned marine biologists. What appeared to be a lifeless, rocky mound on sonar turned out to be a nursery for the Pacific white skate, a deep-sea species that prefers total darkness and water temperatures close to freezing. But here, the heat seeping from volcanic vents has transformed a desolate seafloor into a thriving cradle of life.

A Sleeping Volcano That Wasn’t So Asleep
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When the team from Fisheries and Oceans Canada explored the site during the Northeast Pacific Deep-Sea Expedition in 2023, they expected to map an inactive seamount.² Instead, they found plumes of hot water venting through cracks — proof that the volcano was very much alive. Rising more than a kilometer above the seabed, this underwater giant has quietly become a refuge for marine life — corals, sponges, and now, it seems, an army of unborn skates.

“We didn’t expect to find anything like this,” said marine biologist Cherisse Du Preez, who led the expedition, noting that the volcano’s warmth appears to act like a natural incubator in a place where life usually moves very, very slowly.

Nature’s Most Unexpected Incubator

The Pacific white skate, known scientifically as Bathyraja spinosissima, is one of the deepest-dwelling species of its kind, reported from roughly 800 to 2,938 meters below the surface.³ Its egg cases are impressive — up to 50 centimeters long, leathery and dark, shaped almost like oversized ravioli. Each one contains a single embryo that will grow in near-total darkness for years before hatching.

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Skate egg cases are often nicknamed “mermaid’s purses,” but deep-sea species can take far longer to develop than their shallow-water relatives.

In the frigid deep sea, development can take four years or more, but the heat from hydrothermal activity could shorten that timeline.⁴ The result is a rare evolutionary shortcut: by laying eggs near volcanic warmth, the skates may give their young a better start in life, shielded by rugged terrain and accelerated by a few crucial degrees.

One diver who reviewed the footage compared it to “walking into a dragon’s nest” — only instead of fire and smoke, there’s life blooming out of stone.

When Geology Meets Biology

The site, rising roughly 1,100 meters and stretching across the seafloor, is now being hailed as one of the most significant deep-sea finds of the decade. It offers scientists a real-time glimpse of evolution in action — where geology shapes biology in the most direct way.

“These are places where the boundaries between life and the Earth’s crust blur,” Du Preez explained. “The skates have found a way to use the planet’s heat to their advantage. It’s extraordinary.”

Similar connections between volcanic heat and marine ecosystems have been found before — most famously around the Galápagos hydrothermal vents — but rarely at a scale like this. The sheer number of egg cases suggests the phenomenon could be more common than we realized, hiding in other volcanic zones still unexplored.

Protecting a Fragile Wonder

While the discovery is inspiring, it also raises concerns. Deep-sea ecosystems are under growing pressure from climate change and mining projects, both of which threaten to disturb these fragile habitats. Conservationists are urging governments to take swift action to protect volcanic zones like this one before they’re damaged beyond recovery.

The irony isn’t lost on scientists: in depths once thought barren, life is flourishing thanks to the very forces that shaped the planet. Yet that same geological wealth can also make these places targets for exploitation.

As the research continues, one thing is certain — this underwater volcano has rewritten what we thought we knew about life in the abyss. A vast field of silent egg cases, warmed by volcanic heat, is a powerful reminder that our planet still holds secrets capable of leaving even the most seasoned scientists in awe.

The next time you imagine the deep ocean as cold and lifeless, think again. Somewhere beneath the Pacific, a volcano is quietly breathing life into the dark.

Footnotes

Live Science — “Scientists discover ancient, underwater volcano is still active — and covered in up to a million giant eggs” — URL: https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/volcanos/scientists-discover-ancient-underwater-volcano-is-still-active-and-covered-in-up-to-a-million-giant-eggs
9News — “Active underwater volcano covered with up to a million eggs just ‘scratching surface’ of ‘big deal discovery’” — URL: https://www.9news.com.au/world/northeast-pacific-deep-sea-expedition-active-underwater-volcano-covered-million-giant-eggs-discovered/18489fe3-72e8-4931-a74e-eee6fb146d78
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information — “Range Extensions and New Records from Alaska and the Eastern North Pacific” — URL: https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/21065/noaa_21065_DS1.pdf
Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio) — “Deep-sea hydrothermal vents as natural egg-case incubators at the Galapagos Rift” — URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20046-4

A million giant eggs just emerged from an underwater volcano — scientists shocked

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