An apparently intact shipwreck has emerged in imagery from the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
With an apparently raised stern and a prominent bowsprit, the ship resembles a merchant vessel of the 18th or 19th centuries.
The image was released Wednesday by a unit of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which is coordinating the search effort in the southern Indian Ocean.
It is the second shipwreck to be identified in the search so far.
The project is cosponsored by Malaysia and China and uses commercial vessels to conduct the search.
In a statement, the ATSB said the shipwreck came to light on Dec. 19 when sonar scans identified an anomaly. An autonomous underwater vehicle was then deployed from the Havila Harmony, one of three ships currently involved in the search, to obtain high-resolution imagery.
"The AUV is currently surveying some of the most difficult portions of the search area that cannot be searched effectively using the deep tow sonar," it said.
In all, 80,000 square kilometers (31,000 square miles) of ocean bed has been searched so far.
Debris of MH370 has been identified washed up on Reunion Island off the eastern coast of Africa, but its crash site remains unidentified.
