Diagram 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.

Diagram ocean floor mapping.

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. A previous version of this article stated that the globe was made using google earth. Data collected by satellites and remote sensing instruments were used to created a model at least twice as. Researchers today published the most detailed map of the ocean floor ever produced.

The problem with that approach is that our oceans are vast and ships are small meaning only a tiny percentage of the ocean floor between 5 15 percent nasa estimates was mapped. Topographic maps of the sea floor produced at a 1 100 000 scale that contain loran c rates bottom sediment types and known bottom obstructions. All 1 250 000 and 1 1000 000 maps are overprinted with the minerals management service s ocs protraction diagram data. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.

Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet. Hess used sonar to. The video below explains the gravitational mapping technique in more detail and shows a tour of the ocean floor. Mapping technologies the most detailed map of the ocean floor ever seen.

The sea floor mapping group sfmg is a core capability at the woods hole coastal marine science center whcmsc that provides support for coastal lacustrine and marine geologic research. The staff has a wide range of expertise and is responsible for geophysical and sampling data acquisition processing interpretation and publication logistics design and research and development. Published today this is the most detailed map of the ocean floor ever produced using satellite imagery to show ridges and.