Scientists recently discovered a group of what seems to be heat-proof hammerhead sharks in the most unbelievable area.
National Geographic released footage of ocean engineer Brenan Philips discovering these fearsome creatures swimming around in acidic, volcanic waters "in numbers" in a volcanic area off the Solomon Islands.
According to News.com.au, the expedition site dropped a camera through Kavachi Volcano's ash plume, some 55 meters below the surface. It was able to record about an hour's worth of footage.
The team first found some jellyfish and snappers "hanging out" in the water before coming across hammerhead sharks in deeper waters.
Mirror reported that the sharks were filmed swimming inside active volcano's central cauldron. Known for emitting hot ash, lava and steam right up into the ocean's surface, its water is reportedly "deadly to most other living creatures".
However, the seemingly "heat-proof" hammerhead sharks as well as other shark species were swimming around in the acidic water, not minding the heat at all.
"Sharks are cool in their own right," the news site quoted Phillips as saying. "But a hammerhead is particularly neat looking. And they're in there, in numbers, inside the volcano."
The discovery led the team to believe that, perhaps, sharkcanos could be real after all.
"When its erupting there is no way anything could live in there," Phillips explained further, noting that the water around the Kavachi can reach up to 400 degrees Celsius during eruptions.
He added that "to see large animals like this - that are living and could potentially die at any moment - it brings up lots of questions. Do they leave? Do they have some sort of sign it's about to erupt? Do they blow up sky high in little bits?"
The discovery of these heat-proof sharks only made Phillips more curious about the creatures as well as the deadly acidic waters that they're living in.
"Now I want to spend years trying to study that and why that is the case," Mirror quoted the ocean explorer.
Watch the footage here!
