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Table of Contents

Credit to the Author #

Title: The Ocean Is Deeper Than You Think. We Need Better Maps.
Author: Cleo Abram
Year: 2023

My Reference Notes #

Ocean Mapping is Limited: Current ocean maps are very low resolution, with most of the ocean floor mapped at only 1.5 kilometers per pixel, compared to Mars, which is mapped at 5 meters per pixel.
Importance of Ocean Mapping: Accurate maps are crucial for various activities like laying internet cables, global trade, military operations, and predicting natural disasters like tsunamis.
Challenges in Mapping: Unlike land or Mars, light cannot penetrate the deep ocean, making traditional photography impossible. Advanced technology like sonar and satellite gravity data are used, but they provide only an approximation of the seabed.
Historical Context: Early ocean floor maps, created by pioneers like Marie Tharp using sonar data, were crude and filled with educated guesses. Modern technology has improved the accuracy but much of the ocean remains unmapped.
New Technologies: Autonomous underwater vehicles (robots) and AI are being employed to map the ocean more efficiently. Seabed 2030 is an international project aiming to map the entire ocean floor by 2030 with much higher resolution.
Environmental Concerns: Some fear that detailed maps could lead to exploitation of ocean resources, but the lack of maps is not a barrier to such activities. Knowledge is seen as a tool for better management and stewardship of ocean resources.
Human Curiosity and Innovation: The effort to map the ocean is likened to space exploration, symbolising human curiosity and collaboration. The goal is to use this knowledge to better understand and possibly protect the ocean, one of the last unknown places on Earth.