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Portuguese scientists have found a depression on the Atlantic Ocean floor they think may be an impact crater. The roughly circular, 6km-wide hollow has a broad central dome and has been dubbed the "Fried Egg" because of its distinctive shape. It was detected to the south of the Azores Islands during a survey to map the continental shelf. If the Fried Egg was made by a space impactor, the collision probably took place within the past 17 million years... It lies under 2km of water about 150km from the Azores archipelago. The depressed ring sits roughly 110m below the...

The world's oldest European eel just died in its home, a well in a southern Swedish fishing town, aged 155. Some people have ghosts in their attics. Tomas Kjellman, resident in the little fishing town of Brantevik in Skåne, has always had an eel in his well. "My family bought the cottage in 1962, and we always knew the housepet was included," Kjellman told The Local. Its presence has been well-documented for more than a century. But no more. "Of course it's sad. I have memories of the eel from when I was a child," Kjellman said. The eel featured in...

Tracking device reveals for the first time how eels migrate 4,500 miles from European waters to the mid-Atlantic Every November, when the Moon is at its darkest, there’s a stirring on riverbeds, lake bottoms and marshlands around Europe. Countless silver serpents respond to an ancient urge and turn towards faster-moving water, beginning a perilous, 4,500-mile journey down deep ocean trenches and across undersea mountain ranges. Anguilla anguilla elvers resting Until now nothing has been known about their incredible journey, only that the smallest larvae of the European eel are found in the mid-Atlantic Sargasso Sea. How the spawning adults get...

Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive "open wound" on the Earth's surface. Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth's crust appeared to be missing across an area of several thousand square kilometres. The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The team will survey the area, up to 5km (3 miles) under the surface, from ocean research vessel RRS James Cook. The ship is on its inaugural voyage after being named in February. Dr MacLeod said the hole in the Earth's crust...