© Live Science/Scripps Institution of OceanographyThe seafloor map revealed 15,000 new seamounts.
A new topographic map of Earth's mysterious ocean floor reveals thousands of towering volcanoes, hidden gashes where supercontinents ripped apart and other never-before-seen features once veiled by miles of water and thick sediment.
The topography of Earth's seafloor is as corrugated and bumpy as a book set in Braille. By reading these peaks and ridges, scientists can chronicle the birth of new ocean crust and the past wanderings of Earth's continents.
However, even though the seafloor carries the pivotal clues to
plate tectonics, the dry surface of Mars has been detailed more clearly than the ocean's watery depths.
The new map, released today (Oct. 2) in the journal
Science, promises to fill in some of the blanks. Compared with the previous map, from 1997, the resolution is twice as accurate overall and four times as better in coastal areas and the Arctic, said lead study author David Sandwell, a marine geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.
Comment: Also see: Siberian tiger rampages through Russian village killing dogs