Earlier this year, an iceberg the size of Chicago broke off the Antarctic Peninsula. When the gigantic iceberg calved, it revealed a previously hidden 209-square-mile area of seafloor that had never been accessible to humans before.

An international team on board Schmidt Ocean Institute's R/V Falkor (too) working in the Bellingshausen Sea rapidly pivoted their research plans to study an area that was, until last month, covered by ice.