Scuba Sea Floor Mapping

New high resolution maps of the seafloor are expected to.

Scuba sea floor mapping.

This graphic shows several ocean floor features on a scale from 0 35 000 feet below sea level. Thus on an equal area basis reef habitats have 825 times more biomass than the sandy bottom. Running through all the world s oceans is a continuous mountain range called the mid ocean ridge submarine ridge in figure 14 23. 2 and high resolution seismic reflection profiling direct sampling and visual observations to characterize the sea floor.

Mapping the sea floor. A similar area square meter of sandy sea floor naturally has only about 2 5 ounces of marine life. Reef structures are three dimensional and thus offer more attachment surfaces for marine life growth than the two dimensional sea floor. Continental shelf 300 feet continental slope 300 10 000 feet abyssal plain 10 000 feet abyssal hill 3 000 feet up from the abyssal plain seamount 6 000 feet.

Drive new science such as sediment transport from shelf to deep sea enable deep sea resource management such as habitat surveys. In the 1960 s metal rich hot brines were discovered using sonar in the bottom of the red sea. The surveys provide a new highly detailed view of the sea floor. The sea floor then drops off steeply along the continental slope the true edge of the continent.

Methane seeps are areas where methane leaks from vast reservoirs deep in the ocean mud. Development of the seafloor mapping auv and software for processing the sonar data has been a major focus of the seafloor mapping lab. 1 multibeam echo sounding fig. If that leak is big enough it provides an energy source for microbes who can capture it use it and pass it on to other organisms.

Modern oceanographic surveys use remote sensing techniques sidescan sonar fig. This brine was an indirect evidence of water coming out of the ocean floor. Learn about the noaa office of ocean exploration and research the nation s. Cmor mapping s game changing high resolution bathymetric imagery for simrad lowrance raymarine and furuno chartplotters and mercury vesselview displays brings the ocean floor into an entirely new level of focus for anglers and divers.

The smooth flat regions that make up 40 of the ocean floor are the abyssal plain. The following features are shown at example depths to scale though each feature has a considerable range at which it may occur.