We're not in Kansas anymore: we're in Hawaii, where deep-sea researchers have been following a mysterious yellow brick road.
As we all know – or should know, or else you need to educate yourself – the yellow brick road took Dorothy and her troupe of loveable misfits towards the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz.
It's one of the most iconic works of fiction in history – and on this occasion, life appears to have imitated art on the seabed. The question is: are we off to see the wizard, or is it all a fugazi?
The rock formation was spotted by deep-sea researchers in the Liliʻuokalani Ridge in the Papahānaumokuakea Marine National Monument (PMNM) in the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii.
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PMNM is the largest contiguous fully-protected conservation areas in the world. More specifically, it encompasses 582,578 square miles of the Pacific Ocean, an area larger than all of the US's national parks combined.
It was inscribed as a mixed World Heritage site back in 2010, one of only 24 World Heritage sites in the US, and one of two in Hawaii, along with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Similarly to how more than 80 percent of the ocean has never been explored, it's estimated that researchers have only studied three percent of the PNMM's sea floor, so there was bound to be some strange sights along the way.
During a recent expedition, the crew of the Exploration Vessel Nautilus came across the 'yellow brick road', jokingly describing it as the 'road to Atlantis' in a video.
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The team behind the discovery said: "What may look like a yellow brick road to the mythical city of Atlantis is really an example of ancient active volcanic geology.
"Our Corps of Exploration have witnessed incredibly unique and fascinating geological formations while diving on the Liliʻuokalani Ridge within the Papahānaumokuakea Marine National Monument."
In a further statement, the team said: "At the summit of Nootka Seamount, the team spotted a 'dried lake bed' formation, now IDed as a fractured flow of hyaloclastite rock (a volcanic rock formed in high-energy eruptions where many rock fragments settle to the seabed).
"The unique 90-degree fractures are likely related to heating and cooling stress from multiple eruptions at this baked margin.
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"Throughout the seamount chain, the team also sampled basalts coated with ferromanganese (iron-manganese) crusts from across different depths and oxygen saturations as well as an interesting-looking pumice rock that almost resembled a sponge."
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