More than 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, scientists encountered a truly alien landscape that might just haunt your dreams. It was 2017, and a team of scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) were on the hunt for what they thought would be a shipwreck, perhaps containing a lost archaeological trove. The remotely operated dive was part of an expedition aboard the Okeanos Explorer to map and survey the Gulf, led by marine biologist Diva Amon and echinodermologist Charles Messing.