The ocean covers more than 70% of Earth’s surface, yet much of it remains unexplored. Hidden beneath the waves are scenes so strange and unsettling that they often look more like fiction than reality.
From eerie shipwrecks to bizarre creatures and unexplained discoveries, these underwater photographs capture moments that are as fascinating as they are unnerving.
Here are some of the most haunting images ever taken beneath the surface.
The OceanGate sub on the sea floor near the Titanic.
The bow of the Titanic.
Underwater shark statue at Lake Neuchâtel
The grand staircase of Titanic before and after
Google Earth photo of pond helps find car with skeleton of Florida man missing since 1997
Terrifying warning sign in underwater cave.
Sitting in the engine of a sunken L-1011
Troll-A, over 1500 feet tall, being taken out to sea before it’s legs are sunk down to the ocean floor.
After 2300 years underwater, a cache of ancient relics have been rediscovered off the coast of Thonis-Heraclion in Egypt. They’ve been waiting, watching.
A 50-50 (above/below water line) view of an aircraft carrier
An offshore oil rig which drifted to the coast of the Isle of Lewis due to extreme weather in 2016
Diving in a sunken plane
German U-boat spotted from the air
Underwater detonation of 23 kiloton nuclear weapon known as the Baker Test (1946). It was part of Operation Crossroads in Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The purpose of the tests was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on warships.
Diver Émile Racovitza in one of the first underwater photos, 1899.
The terrifying frilled shark
Sunken coast guard ship
Final Moments of a Japanese Destroyer in the Pacific Ocean. Photo by the US Air Force.
Sea lion takes a chunk out of a defenseless Mola Mola’s head
A 392 year old Greenland Shark in the Arctic Ocean, wandering the ocean since 1627.
When the ocean gives back
Anglerfish from the ocean depths was washed ashore
Harrison Okene spent 60 hours underwater in darkness after his boat capsized 20 miles off the coast of Nigeria and sank to the bottom of the ocean. He was discovered alive by divers who were sent to recover dead bodies
Cenote Angelita is a deep sinkhole located 17 km south of Tulum, Mexico.
The deep-sea dragonfish Aristostomias scintillans has unusual bioluminescent organs producing red light under each eye.
The terrifying sea spider. They are most commonly found in shallow waters, but can be found as deep as 7,000 meters (23,000 ft)
Magnapinna Squid spotted in the ocean
Creepy dinner plate jellyfish swimming
The terrifying goblin shark
The deep-sea gulper eel
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Binnacle of the Andrea Doria, photo taken just 28 hours after it sank
Abandoned, half-sunken lifeboat from a vehicle carrier that sank in 2025
Costa Concordia Wreck
Diving next to water intake pipes
Lifeboat Carrying Titanic Survivors, 1912.
This is last known picture of Titanic before it sank. (1912)
The world’s worst priest praying for the Titanic before sailing (1912)
The surviving passengers of the Titanic disembark on board the Carpathia, 1912
Only known authentic photograph of Titanic’s dining saloon (1912)
German battleship Gneisenau at Kiel shipyard showing damage from a torpedo fired by HMS Clyde (1940)
Photo of a sunken B-25 Mitchell PBJ-1H taken by Pete Mesley.
The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Wreck of the Ocean liner RMS Lusitania
USS Arizona, photo on right included to show how large it is. Over 900 human remains were never recovered from within, thus the wreck serves as a shallow tomb that tourists can walk above. Creepy.
July 26, 1956: Harry Trask’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph capturing the final moments of the SS Andrea Doria, after her catastrophic collision with the MS Stockholm off Nantucket the previous night.
Three miles below the surface, the USS Indianapolis is the Navy’s deepest confirmed shipwreck. Here is the torpedo impact to the starboard side of the Indianapolis.
An underwater statue at the sunken Roman city of Baiae. 100 BC to AD 500.
When the maldivian president held the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting to sign a climate change SOS.
The colossal squid is a deep-sea squid that occupies some of the coldest, darkest parts of the Southern ocean. It’s the heaviest squid ever discovered and can grow up to 10 meters.
The shipwreck of Endurance
The German battleship Bismarck rests upright on the abyssal plain at a depth of roughly 4,790 meters (15,700 feet), about 400 to 600 miles west of Brest, France. Sunk on May 27, 1941.
This was a photo taken in 1912 of an iceberg found with black and red paint in the Atlantic ocean. It is believed this was the iceberg that hit the Titanic.
Sunken USS Arizona still visible at Pearl Harbor
A diver as he ascends from the oily interior of the sunken battleship USS Arizona (BB 39). Photograph released May 23, 1943.
The SS Princess May was a steamship built in 1888. The ship is best known for grounding in 1910, which left the ship sticking completely out of the water. This is one of the most famous shipwreck photographs.
17th century Swedish warship “Vasa”, sank on her maiden voyage, recovered in 1961 nearly completely intact
Underwater camera operator, 1940’s.
U.S. Navy sailors take part in a “swim call” in the Pacific Ocean, 1983.
Crew of a German U-boat perform calisthenics on the deck of their submarine, Atlantic Ocean, December 1943
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