Mind boggling’ array of 19,000 undersea volcanoes discovered with high-resolution radar satellites

Excessive-definition radar satellites have revealed greater than 19,000 undersea volcanoes round our planet, offering scientists with probably the most complete catalog of seamounts ever created. The brand new compendium, which was revealed April 6 within the journal Earth and House Science (opens in new tab), might present a greater understanding of ocean currents, plate tectonics and local weather change.

Previous to this, solely one-quarter of Earth’s seafloor had been mapped utilizing sonar, which makes use of sound waves to detect objects hidden underwater. A 2011 sonar census discovered greater than 24,000 seamounts, or undersea mountains shaped by volcanic exercise. Nonetheless, there are greater than 27,000 seamounts that stay uncharted by sonar, in line with the Science article.

“It’s simply thoughts boggling,” David Sandwell (opens in new tab), a marine geophysicist on the Scripps Establishment of Oceanography who labored on the survey, informed Science journal.

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Nonetheless, the brand new examine reveals that scientists don’t have to depend on sonar surveys to research what’s occurring below the ocean. Radar satellites not solely measure an ocean’s top however may see what’s lurking within the water’s inky depths, providing a greater illustration of the topography of the seafloor. Scientists pulled knowledge from a number of satellites, together with the European House Company’s CryoSat-2, and located that they may detect underwater mounds as small as 3,609 toes (1,100 meters) tall, which is the decrease restrict of what constitutes a seamount, in line with the Science article.

With this expertise, scientists predict they’ll estimate the heights of small undersea volcanoes to an accuracy of roughly 1,214 toes (370 m), in line with the examine.

Up to now, researchers have mapped a set of seamounts within the northeast Atlantic Ocean that would assist clarify the evolution of a mantle plume that feeds greater than 100 volcanoes in Iceland. These up to date maps may also present a greater understanding of ocean currents and “upwellings,” which happen when water from the underside of the ocean churns upward to the floor — a phenomenon that scientists assume might be “concentrated at seamounts and ridges,” in line with the Science article.

“There is a zoo of attention-grabbing issues that occur when you have got topography,” Brian Arbic (opens in new tab), a bodily oceanographer on the College of Michigan in Ann Arbor who wasn’t concerned with the examine, informed Science.

You possibly can learn the complete Science article right here (opens in new tab).

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