Deep Sea Floor Mapping

So much more than you might think.

Deep sea floor mapping.

Seabed contains several hundred years worth of cobalt and nickel. Lamont scientists have long been at the forefront of ocean floor mapping. By the 1920s the coast and geodetic survey an ancestor of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration s national ocean service was using sonar to map deep water. Researchers today published the most detailed map of the ocean floor ever produced.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope. By conducting a multibeam sonar survey similar to a medical ultrasound scientists are able to image the sea bottom. Huge trenches walls flatlands and seamounts fill the seascape and have a direct impact on the water bodies above them.

In 1957 the publication of heezen and tharp s physiographic map of the north atlantic was the first map of the seafloor that allowed the general public to begin to visualize the ocean floor. Lamont oceanographers marie tharp and bruce heezen created the first comprehensive map of the world s ocean beds. Seafloor mapping also called seabed imaging is the measurement of water depth of a given body of water bathymetric measurements are conducted with various methods from sonar and lidar techniques to buoys and satellite altimetry various methods have advantages and disadvantages and the specific method used depends upon the scale of the area under study financial means desired measurement. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

The first modern breakthrough in sea floor mapping came with the use of underwater sound projectors called sonar which was first used in world war i. The ocean s floor is as complex as it is deep. The results that let this new marvelously detailed map of the seafloor from nasa s earth observatory be made were. Data collected by satellites and remote sensing instruments were used to created a model at least twice as.

We re working to put our seafloor on the map through continuous data collection. In recent years satellite images show a very clear mapping of the seabed and are used extensively in the study and exploration of the ocean floor. Much of australia s vast ocean territory is unknown with less than 25 per cent of it mapped to a modern standard. Mapping the ocean floor.