Mysterious underwater 'UFO base' spotted just 6 miles off the West Coast

A mysterious formation lurking deep in the ocean has been spotted just a few miles off the coast of Southern California.

Geographically known as Sycamore Knoll, the natural underwater structure looks like a bump pushing up from the ocean floor, with a flat, table-like top.

It has been studied by scientists for years, though recent claims by conspiracy theorists have suggested Sycamore Knoll might be an underwater 'alien base.'

A Reddit post from earlier this year featured a Google Earth image of Sycamore Knoll with the title: 'Underwater UFO base between Malibu and Catalina Island.'

'Some refer to it as an anomaly while others believe it is an alien base,' a Redditor shared in another post this year.

'It's believed to be between two-and-a-half and three miles wide.'

Sycamore Knoll sits about 2,000 feet below the surface and is located 6.6 miles off the coast of Malibu. It is located at geographic coordinates 34° 1'23.31″N 118° 59'45.64″W.

While Google Earth images from 2014 captured detailed views of the formation, it appears to have been wiped from the platform as of 2025, adding more mystery about its origins.

The formation, however, can be seen on other online mapping platforms such as a fishing charter app.

Sycamore Knoll has been known for the past several decades but gained widespread public attention in 2014 when Google Earth images led to speculation about its structure, with some suggesting it resembled an artificial or alien base.

The structure was also featured on the 'Fade to Black' podcast with Host Jimmy Church, who fed into conspiracies proclaiming it as not natural, but rather extraterrestrial.

He speculated that it could be the biggest center of UFO activity found since Roswell, New Mexico, the Los Angeles Almanac reported.

The National UFO Reporting Center has also received many reports of mysterious objects flying over the exact area as Sycamore Knoll, with some people saying they spotted craft emerging from the ocean.

'It looked like a massive, cathedral-shaped structure — multiple pointed edges all glowing brilliantly white, heading straight into the ocean,' one California resident reported to the UFO reporting site after seeing a mysterious craft in the sky.

'There was no splash, no sound... just a flash, and it was gone.

'It happened so fast — like a giant ship or object vanishing beneath the surface in an instant.'

The X account Daily UFO, which has over 35,000 followers, shared a post about Sycamore Knoll in January, noting how Google Earth previously showed the tabletop formation and now it is blurred.

Some have suggested that the Google Earth image 'isn't an actual picture, so there's nothing to blur,' noting that 'it's a digital markup of data. The 'blur' is just a lack of data.'

Republican Congressman Tim Burchett also claimed in January that an admiral, whom he did not identify, told him about a UFO that was moving underwater at remarkable speed.

'They tell me something's moving at hundreds of miles an hour underwater... as large as a football field, underwater,' the Tennessee congressman told former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, who now hosts a show on right-wing news outlet One America News.

'This was a documented case, and I have an admiral telling me this stuff.'

The renewed attention in Sycamore Knoll also comes days after a UFO expert who released a new video this week showing the infamous Tic Tac revealed bombshell theories about the phenomenon.

Jeremy Corbell, an investigative journalist and filmmaker known for his work with George Knapp on military-documented unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), has once again ignited public debate over UFOs - this time with newly released footage captured aboard the USS Jackson in 2023.

The video, made public this month after a multi-year verification process, shows what Corbell and military witnesses described as a 'self-luminous, wingless, tailless' craft rising from the Pacific Ocean.

But Corbell insisted the new footage is far from an isolated event. 

Instead, he said it fits a broader and increasingly alarming pattern: repeated sightings of intelligently controlled craft that defy known aerodynamics, appear regularly in the same offshore military training zone, and may originate from below the ocean's surface.

According to Corbell, the 2023 incident echoes two other major military encounters: the 2004 Nimitz sighting and a lesser-known but well-documented 2019 event in which a swarm of UAPs surrounded ten Navy warships over multiple nights.

The new footage, he argued, is not a standalone revelation but part of a growing body of evidence pointing to intelligently controlled craft - capable of transmedium travel (moving seamlessly through space, air, and water) - that have repeatedly appeared over decades in the same region: Warning Area 291, off the coast of Southern California.

The 2023 release was supported by a new military witness: an active-duty U.S. Navy combat information center (CIC) operator who claims to have seen the object rise from the ocean with his own eyes. 

Corbell and Knapp, known for handling sensitive testimonies, vetted the witness and aligned his account with radar data and FLIR imagery.

The Navy veteran tracked the object using the ship's high-powered SAPPHIRE FLIR thermal targeting system. 

Radar detected four unknown targets in the area, though two were captured on video. 

According to the witness, all four UAPs performed an instantaneous, synchronized maneuver, shooting off simultaneously without visible propulsion, suggesting intelligent coordination.