Thousands Of Unknown Seamounts Discovered By Satellites

Cynthia McKanzie – MessageToEagle.com – The exact number hasn’t been confirmed yet, but this is an exciting discovery. Scientists report that while mapping the ocean floor, satellites have registered as many as 10,000 larger underwater mountains. They have been unknown until now and this finding will help researchers produce a new detailed map of the ocean floor.

Thousands Of Unknown Seamounts Discovered By Satellites

More than 10,000 seamounts have been discovered. Credit: NOAA’s National Ocean Service

The discovery was made by a team led by David Sandwell and Brook Tozer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, New Scientist reports.

What lurks beneath our oceans is still unknown and much remains to be learned from exploring the mysteries of the deep. Our oceans cover more than 70 percent of the planet’s surface, but we don’t know what is hiding underwater. National Ocean Service states that less than 10% of the global ocean is mapped using modern sonar technology. For the ocean and coastal waters of the United States, only about 35 percent has been mapped with modern methods.

Understanding of Earth’s seafloor is crucial, and this discovery has providing researchers with valuable information. For one thing, they can update a  topographical map of the seafloor known as SRTM15+V2.0 that is currently used to climate modelling and tsunami prediction.

These new submarine mountains, known as seamounts are also of particular interest because they are home to a wide range of biodiversity.  As mentioned previously on MessageToEagle.com, seamounts are either active or dormant volcanoes that rise dramatically from the bottom of the ocean and never reach the surface. They are large isolated elevation(s), greater than 1,000 m in relief above the sea floor, characteristically of conical form.

Around seamounts,  there are many organisms that serve as food for other organisms and other underwater animals.

See also:

Amasia (‘Pangaea Proxima’): Next Supercontinent Will Appear And Form One Continent On Our Planet

Incredible Lost Volcanic Underwater World Discovered Off The Tasmanian Coast

Stunning View Of What Supercontinent Pangea Looks Like Mapped With Modern Borders

More About Earth Changes

In 2021, NASA will launch the SWOT satellite that’s currently being built by Thales Alenia Space in conjunction with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) Mission will provide us with a better understanding of the world’s oceans and its terrestrial surface waters. SWOT will be the first satellite to conduct a global survey of Earth’s surface water, observe the fine details of the ocean’s surface topography, and measure how water bodies change over time.

Written by – Cynthia McKanzie  – MessageToEagle.com  Staff Writer