A Great Lake has an even greater mystery.
Dozens of massive, 600-foot-wide sinkholes have recently been discovered 500 feet below Lake Michigan, but how they got there remains a head-scratcher.
Back in 2022, the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary detected the anomaly through sonar. Last month, a new, remote expedition was sent to its section of water 14 miles southeast of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, LiveScience reported.
“There’s now a geological question in mind. How did they form? Why are they there, specifically in the bedrock?” Wisconsin Maritime Museum Director Kevin Cullen told TMJ4 News.
“We’re all scratching our heads wondering, what could these things be?”
Right now, Cullen, who noted a slim 10 to 15% of Lake Michigan’s massive floor has been explored, pontificates a potential connection to the underwater gorges being formed by glaciers centuries ago.
However, local shipwreck hunter Brendon Baillod told LiveScience he isn’t ready to call the underwater phenomena sinkholes just yet.
“I think they might be more accurately called craters,” Baillod said, explaining that they may be the result of trapped gas or water upwelling towards the surface.
In the nearby Lake Huron, related research detected similar sinkholes as well.
Now, Cullen is embracing the mystery and what could come from further research on the lesser-understood region.
“That’s the beauty of storytelling, the beauty of scientific inquiry,” he said. “There’s always new stones to be uncovered.”