Cluster of huge underwater volcanoes found off the coast of Sydney

Researchers exploring the sea floor off of the coast of Sydney, Australia discovered 4 ancient volcanoes.

While exploring the sea floor off of the coast of Sydney, Australia, researchers found not only the lobster samples they were looking for, but they also discovered 4 ancient volcanoes.

It's believed the giant, extinct calderas are around 50 million years old.

%shareLinks-quote="Researchers believe their age and placement may hold information concerning the separation of Australia and New Zealand. " type="spreadWord"%

The volcanic mass could also prove valuable in learning more about the Earth's crust and the mantle just below it.

All together, the features measure approximately 12-and-a-half miles long and just under 4 miles wide.

The largest among them stretches a mile across and rises roughly 23 hundred feet from the ocean's bottom.

That something so large could go undiscovered for as long as it did was not lost on the scientists.

Noted one of the researchers, "I immediately said, 'What are they doing there and why didn't we know about them before?' It really backs up the statement that we know more about the surface of the moon than our sea floor."

Australia's newly implemented research vessel Investigator was instrumental in the find.

Its subaquatic surface mapping abilities far exceed that of the ship previously used for such investigations.