Satellites expose mysteries of the deep ocean
New global seafloor map is most accurate ever created
SUNKEN SURFACE A new map charts the depths of Earth’s oceans (Atlantic shown) in unprecedented detail using satellite data. Warm colors correspond to formations such as mountains and continental shelves; bluer colors represent deeper areas such as trenches.
Google Earth, overlay by D.T. Sandwell/Scripps Institution of Oceanography
A new comprehensive map of Earth’s seafloor reveals never-before-seen features hidden deep below the waves, including thousands of uncharted underwater mountains. The map, presented in the Oct. 3 Science, is the most accurate global seafloor map ever made and could provide new clues to how Earth’s surface got its shape.
“We know a lot about the continents, but we know almost nothing about what’s going on in the oceans,” says lead author David Sandwell, an earth scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. “It’s like being on another planet; the ocean is probably the most unexplored feature in the inner solar system.”
