The Eltanin 'Antenna' Identified
19 October, 2003.
The USNS Eltanin ,
an ice breaking cargo ship, was launched and acquired by the US Navy in 1957.
Reclassified as an Oceanographic Research Vessel for the National
Science Foundation in 1962, it became the world's first Antarctic research ship.
On 29 August 1964 (per
this
account) while coring and photographing the deep sea bottom West of Cape Horn,
the Eltanin took the photo shown here. The position was
59:07'S by 105:03'W, depth 3904 meters. See this
Map
The "Eltanin antenna" is a sponge, Cladorhiza.
A marine biologist pointed Tom DeMary to the book The Face of the Deep (1971)
by Heezen and Hollister (see below..) which reproduces the photo taken by the
USNS Eltanin, and a redrawing of an earlier drawing by Alexander Agassiz in
'Three Cruises of the Blake' (1888).
An extract from The Face of the Deep: "Cladorhiza, a particularly
dramatic [sponge] which somewhat resembles a space-age microwave antenna,
was not uncommon in the early dredge hauls of Challenger and Blake (2.15).
Agassiz observed that 'they are sponges with a long stem ending in
ramifying roots, sunk deeply into the mud. The stem has nodes with four
to six club-like appendages. They evidently cover like bushes extensive
tracts of the bottom.'"
The familar Eltanin photograph shows only a solitary specimen. Otherwise it would be
more apparent that it is a marine animal and not a manufactured object.
Tom DeMary scanned the figures (2.15) & (2.16) from: The Face of the Deep;
by Bruce C. Heezen and Charles D. Hollister New York,
Oxford University Press 1971 LOC Card Catalog Number: 77-83038
ASIN: 0195012771 pp. 39 & 40
The drawing was re-drawn from a figure in Three Cruises of the Blake,
by Alexander Agassiz, Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA 1888 #2: Fig 541
(Three Cruises was 2 volumes, now both out of print.
It may have been reprinted in the 1960s. It is packed
with photos of life on the sea bottom.
Tom DeMary deserves major credit for rediscovering the true
nature of the 'Eltanin Antenna'. He contacted the
marine biologist who pointed out the sources above.
All of this was well known to the relevant biologists,
but totally ignored it seems by the 'new age' people, numerologists
and anomalists of all sorts.
Its a pity that anomalists and scientists don't consult one another.
Henk Hinfelaar in New Zealand secured a clipping of the original report
from the NZ Herald. Murray Bott archived it, and Peter Hassall
tediously transcribed it
Here
This is the original uncropped photo, giving the (often mistaken)
location and identification. The source is noted above.
A Google search for Eltanin Antenna brings up nearly 300
websites. Add the word 'sponge' and you find next to nothing.
See also:
Map of location
Thematic Maps menu
Main MAPS menu
*U* UFO Database
Water UFO website
