If anyone has an interest in graphic novels, there is one called Stages of Rot by Linnea Sterte which is focused around this. Its very alien and beautiful in the realm of the tv show Scavenger's Reign, and I definitely recommend it
There's a team who live-stream their dives with a deep-sea ROV, and being along for the ride when they discovered a whale fall in 2019 will always be something I remember very fondly.
They returned in 2020 to document the changes to the carcass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvSNgwIqvrM
The falls in this article though seem so different due to their depth and age, and especially surprising to me is the sedimentation rate in that area, ~less than half a centimeter per 1000 years. I always imagine ocean sedimentation to be substantial and uniform, but it makes sense that currents and local ecology would play a huge role.
This is perhaps the most "metal concept album"-ready Nature article title I have seen. My Nature+ subscription is paying the bills this month, for sure.
This reminds me a little bit of the claim that if a human body were to die in a spaceship there would be life living in its remnants essentially indefinitely
The falls in this article though seem so different due to their depth and age, and especially surprising to me is the sedimentation rate in that area, ~less than half a centimeter per 1000 years. I always imagine ocean sedimentation to be substantial and uniform, but it makes sense that currents and local ecology would play a huge role.
https://youtu.be/QxSUsn8H2zs