Researchers created a latest map using previously unexploited streams of satellite information, they’ve mapped the ocean floor with unprecedented details and this discovery could assist researchers gain insight into how the continents were formed.
The latest map is much accurate than its predecessor version of the map, which was formed some 20 years ago, this map particularly improved and has topographical features, which helps to reach in the unrevealed area of the seafloor and also improve depth estimates for approximately 80 percent of the oceans.
Merged with accessible data and significantly improved remote sensing instruments, the new map has revealed details of thousands of undersea mountains, or seamounts, extending a kilometer or more from the ocean bottom and the latest new map also provides geophysicists new tools to explore ocean spreading centers and little-studied remote ocean basins.
The map was formed by gathering data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CryoSat-2 satellite, which generally collects polar ice information, but also manages constantly over the oceans, and Jason-1, NASA’s satellite that was transmitted to map the gravity field during the last year of its 12-year mission.
The map not only discloses hidden features like continental connections and seafloor spreading ridges, but also enhances depth estimates at 80% of the ocean. Much of that landscape is buried beneath as much as a mile’s worth of sediment, if it’s been charted at all and the map also forms the foundation for Google’s upcoming ocean maps.
Don Rice, program leader in the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Division of Ocean Sciences says that the investigation team has developed and proved a potent latest tool for high-resolution exploration of regional seafloor structure and geophysical processes, this ability will permit us to re-examine unsolved questions and to pinpoint where to focus future investigative work.