One year of data from this mission provided a clearer picture than 30 years of data collected by older ships and satellites.
Scientists used data from NASA’s Surface Water and Ocean Topography () mission to develop a detailed map of the ocean floor from satellite measurements.
In a paper Thursday in Science, researchers said a year of data from that mission provided a clearer picture than 30 years of data collected by older ships and satellites.
“The ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, but the seabed is poorly mapped compared to the Moon, Mars and Venus“, they begin by alerting researchers.
Ocean mapping typically involves ship-based probes and satellite radar altimetry. The NASA mission uses this radar altimetry to measure ocean surface heights with high precision.
“With the mission still underway, SWOT promises critical discoveries for mapping, plate tectonic reconstruction, underwater navigation and deep ocean mixing,” the scientists estimate.
The map
The team focused on three types of underwater features: abyssal hills, small underwater volcanoes and continental margins.
With data collected by NASA’s satellite, the team mapped individual hills and identified the places where the direction of the ridges changedsuggesting that, at some point in Earth’s history, the tectonic plate that formed them changed the direction of its movement.
“The new satellite observations have a resolution about twice as high as older observationspresenting an opportunity to better understand the geological characteristics of the seabed”, adds the article.
When it comes to underwater volcanoes, the team was able to locate thousands of smaller volcanoes, less than 1,000 meters high, that were previously unknown.
The NASA mission designed to produce this detailed map of the ocean floor is planned to last three years, with the goal of continuing to collect data on ocean currents and assess the availability of freshwater around the world.
