New Map Shows Sea Floor In Greater Detail Than Ever Before

             (Image: David Sandwell, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego)

You know what is utterly terrifying in scope and takes up most of the Earth's surface? The ocean. If Pacific Rim taught us anything, it is that there are PROBABLY aliens living in there, just waiting for the perfect time to hatch and surface. The truth is, we know very little about the ocean. There are depths that have yet to be explored, and it is safe to assume, within those depths, there are new sea creatures we have never seen before that will fuel our nightmares. Maybe not of Pacific Rim proportions, but angler fish prove size doesn't matter when it comes to what is terrifying in the ocean. Sorry, I am totally getting sidetracked here.

GizMag has an article right now about some new sea-maps that have been released that show unprecedented detail in the ocean floor. Mountains and crevices mapped out that allow scientists and oceanographers further insight into how the continents were formed, and just what may be happening miles under the sea's surface. The site explains further:

The new map's accuracy is thanks to improved remote sensing instruments and access to two previously untapped streams of satellite data. These come from the ESA's CryoSat-2, which is usually focused on monitoring polar ice volume but also operates continuously over the oceans, and NASA's Jason-1, which was redirected to map Earth's gravity field during the last year of its 12-year mission. Data from these satellites was combined with existing data and used to develop a scientific model that captures gravity measurements on the ocean seafloor.

While incredibly impressive, I happen to have a sort of Pandora's Box vibe about the ocean, though. I mean, do we REALLY want to find out what is down there? I was just informed by some people far more professional than I that we do, indeed, want to know what is in the ocean, as well as its topography. I guess I just have a more vivid imagination than most. 


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