Massive Discovery Unearthed at the Ocean’s Depths!

Less than a quarter of the ocean floor is mapped entirely on land, leaving gaps in our understanding of the underwater world.

Led by geologist Julie Gevorgian of the Scripps Oceanographic Institution in California, a team of scientists has discovered more than 19,000 new seamounts using a new set of satellite data.

That so many underwater peaks have been found below the surface of the ocean is unbelievable, Gevorgyan said. Especially when you realize how big these seamounts are and how unknown they were before.

As a result of volcanic activity deep below the ocean surface, seamounts can rise to a height of 3 to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). They are usually easy to spot with sonar, but only if a ship passes over them.

Small seamounts less than two kilometers high are hard to find, although they tend to form near mid-ocean ridges where magma rushes through the thin, fractured crust.

Over the last decade or so, scientists have turned to satellite data to detect small bumps in the ocean’s surface and map the location of seamounts. Direct, measures subtle changes in sea level that reflect the gravitational pull from hills in the Earth’s underwater crust. The larger the embankment, the stronger its gravitational attraction to the seawater above it.

Using this method, Gevorkian and her colleagues identified 19,325 new submarine volcanoes, adding them to the 24,643 mapped seamounts that the two team members had previously cataloged in 2011, and eliminated some errors in the process.

Thus, there are 43,454 mountains under water, which is almost twice the number known to us.

Many of the recently discovered seamounts are smaller and thought to be too small to be detected by satellite data. However, recent developments to expand the coverage and improve the accuracy of satellite data from the European Space Agency’s CryoSat-2 satellite and SARAL, versions of the Indian and French space agencies, have changed the picture.

Of the 700 strange peaks that Gevorkian and her colleagues found in areas with particularly good coverage, the smallest volcano stood at only 421 meters high, rather small compared to volcanoes on the rugged seafloor.

Most of them were longer than 700 meters, and some reached 2500 meters above the seabed. Using these well-studied volcanoes as a guide, the researchers then assessed the shape and size of the other pillars they identified.

The researchers, who were not involved in the work, say the results could deepen our understanding of plate tectonics, volcanoes, ocean current movements and marine life in vast areas of the ocean that have not been mapped for a long time.

“Because of the impact seamounts have on oceans and ecosystems, they are important targets for study, planning, and classification,” the researchers wrote in their published paper.

Despite this massive update in the number of known seamounts, researchers believe thousands more could be discovered. In 2011, they estimated that there could be up to 55,000 underwater peaks worldwide, a figure that may need to be revised based on new figures.

The study was published in the journal Earth and Space Science.

Source: Science Alert

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