A deep-sea mystery is swirling off Germany’s Baltic coast. A $330,000 underwater observatory disappeared this week, seemingly ripped from the bottom of the ocean. Divers sent to investigate snapped a picture of the sole piece of evidence: the gnarled cable to which it was attached, shown above.

The Boknis Eck observatory was established in 2016 and was operated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, a marine research institute located in the German port city Kiel, and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht, Germany’s largest scientific organization. Various instruments attached to the observatory actively monitored changes in temperature and salinity and tracked concentrations of certain elements in the water.

“The data we get from it is priceless,” GEOMAR head of oceanographic research Hermann Bange said in a statement released by the institute.

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