Satellites Reveal Hidden Features At the Bottom of Earth's Seas

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Satellites Reveal Hidden Features At the Bottom of Earth's Seas

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday October 2, 2014 @12:15PM from the under-the-sea dept.

sciencehabit writes Oceanographers have a saying: Scientists know more about the surface of Mars than they do about the landscape at the bottom of our oceans. But that may soon change. Using data from satellites that measure variations in Earth's gravitational field, researchers have found a new and more accurate way to map the sea floor. The improved resolution has already allowed them to identify previously hidden features—including thousands of extinct volcanoes more than 1000 meters tall—as well as piece together some lingering uncertainties in Earth's ancient history.

54 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

So did they find Atlantis? by BarbaraHudson · 2014-10-02 12:16 · Score: 1

I'm sure there will be many people posting about how "there's a conspiracy to hide Atlantis, which is why they haven't 'found' it in this study."

--
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
1. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by pr0t0 · 2014-10-02 12:29 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Of course they aren't going to find it. It's all the way over in the Pegasus galaxy.
  
  --
  I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
2. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 12:45 · Score: 1
  
  I think you missed the final episode.
3. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by __aaclcg7560 · 2014-10-02 12:56 · Score: 1
  
  Nah... They're too busy looking for Davy's locker.
4. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by avgjoe62 · 2014-10-02 12:57 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Someday, SOMEDAY we will discover a race of super human vegan Atlantean descendants ruled by Amelia Earhart, living inside a hollow Earth, flying UFOs powered by perpetual power from magnets, guarded by a race of super intelligent Yetis all of whom are Mensa members. THEN what are you going to do with your skepticism, huh?
  Just you wait and see. Edgar Cayce will be proven correct and all you sheeple will realize it too late!!!
  /sarcasm
  
  --
  How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
5. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by LynnwoodRooster · 2014-10-02 13:11 · Score: 1
  
  Uhhh, that's a heck of a ramble there. Total lunacy. Everyone KNOWS it's the lizard people acting as guards...
  
  --
  Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
6. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 13:13 · Score: 0
  
  MH370 crashed right into it, that's why they're pretending they still haven't found it.
7. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by rossdee · 2014-10-02 13:47 · Score: 1
  
  "I think you missed the final episode."
  Thats because they (the SyFy channel) cancelled the show
8. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 15:25 · Score: 0
  
  The show definitely exists. I first watched it on late-night syndication. Later I re-watched it via [popular disc rental company].
  Here's final scene of Stargate Atlantis (58 seconds).
  Btw, you didn't include any emoticons, so I can't tell if you're pulling a "it's a shame they never made a sequel to the Matrix."
  I'll grant you that it wasn't the best ending we could have hoped for, but it was good enough closure.
  Also, yes there were some alternate-universe episodes in the final season, but the series finale was definitely meant to occur in "our" universe.
9. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Em+Adespoton · 2014-10-02 16:35 · Score: 1
  
  Don't throw the Doctor into the classics please -- even if he's a classic himself.
  But I'd like to know why he left out the crystal skulls.
10. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 21:30 · Score: 0
  
  In which case they still won't find it, it's cloaked in SF bay... apparently without being a shipping hazard.
11. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 22:52 · Score: 0
  
  Gripped by sheer terror I continued reading, who the fuck is Edgar Cayce?! -this man knew things far beyond what I understand to be real!
  Just before jumping on my office desk and screaming for everyone to run for their lives there it was; a vital clue that would put everything into perspective. /sarcasm
12. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by DigiShaman · 2014-10-03 01:51 · Score: 2
  
  Atlantis tsunami theory; land looks to submerge when in fact it's water rushing over it.
  http://www.theweek.co.uk/polit...‘found’-spain-11000-years-after-tsunami
  
  --
  Life is not for the lazy.
13. Re:So did they find Atlantis? by JoeMerchant · 2014-10-03 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  If the multiverse is true, then, yes - that has happened, just not here.
Dive! Dive! Dive! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 12:23 · Score: 0

Voyage to the bottom of the sea for 20 thousand leagues. How deep is a league?
1. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by Paleolibertarian · 2014-10-02 12:26 · Score: 1
  
  How deep is a league? 5.55600 kilometers.
2. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 13:10 · Score: 0
  
  Exactly three miles, nautical.
3. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by rossdee · 2014-10-02 13:43 · Score: 1
  
  " How deep is a league?"
  6 tackles
4. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by codepigeon · 2014-10-02 14:01 · Score: 1
  
  How deep is a league? about 3,000 fathoms
5. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by camperdave · 2014-10-02 15:09 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Considering that 20,000 leagues down would take you all the way through the Earth, and then out the other side about another seven or eight planetary diameters out into space, or more than twice the altitude of geostationary satellites, I think it's safe to say that the 20,000 leagues refers to a horizontal distance travelled rather than a depth. In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line. If you're wandering along the coast, like Magellan and Drake did, then 20,000 leagues would be once around the planet.
  
  --
  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
6. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by Em+Adespoton · 2014-10-02 16:37 · Score: 2
  
  Depends... are those major leagues, minor leagues or little leagues?
7. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by CeasedCaring · 2014-10-02 19:19 · Score: 1
  
  "20,000 leagues would be once around the planet." Agreed. A league is a measure if distance, not depth.
8. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 00:38 · Score: 0
  
  I remember an SNL skit where Nemo was getting flabbergasted trying to explain the meaning of this to the other characters.
9. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by plopez · 2014-10-03 02:31 · Score: 1
  
  Or metric leagues ;)
  
  --
  putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
10. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-03 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  The leagues in the novel are indeed metric leagues, each exactly 4,000 meters long.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
11. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-03 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Unless you're a Frenchman. ;)
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
12. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-03 05:29 · Score: 1
  
  In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line.
  Only almost exactly two times, actually.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
13. Re: Dive! Dive! Dive! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 05:45 · Score: 0
  
  If you travel in a straight line you would rise back out of the sea.
  You probably mean a great circle route.
14. Re: Dive! Dive! Dive! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-04 04:24 · Score: 0
  
  How very Euclidean of you. Obviously he was talking in non-Euclidean spherical geometry terms.
15. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by camperdave · 2014-10-04 05:18 · Score: 1
  
  In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line.
  Only almost exactly two times, actually.
  Well, it all depends on which definition of league you use. That's the beauty of the customary system; you can choose the units that make you right. "Well, if you use the Tanner's league, yes. But if you measure it using the Apothecary's league..."
  
  --
  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
16. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-04 06:38 · Score: 1
  
  Except that you're NOT free to choose anything here. Post-revolution France abolished all the different lieues of the Ancien Régime and essentially replaced them with the lieue métrique sized exactly at 4,000 meters. That includes the span of Jules Verne's life. And even in case that some people used the older measures, you can easily divine the lenght of Verne's lieue from the English translation of the book whenever a distance is expressed in both leagues and miles:
  
  ... On January 2, we had made 11,340 miles, or 5,250 French leagues, since our starting-point in the Japan seas. ...
  (French original: ... Le 2 janvier, nous avions fait onze mille trois cent quarante milles, soit cinq mille deux cent cinquante lieues, depuis notre point de départ dans les mers du Japon. ... )
  
  ... We had made 16,220 miles, or 7,500 (French) leagues from our starting-point in the Japanese Seas. ...
  (French original: ... Nous avions fait alors seize mille deux cent vingt milles, ou sept mille cinq cents lieues depuis notre point de départ dans les mers du Japon. ... )
  
  The only thing making sense here is that the miles are (quite understandably) nautical (1,852 meters), and that the leagues are French metric (4,000 meters).
  Mind you, the (perhaps tired) English translator didn't get it always right:
  
  ... We had attained a depth of 16,000 yards (four leagues), and the sides of the Nautilus then bore a pressure of 1,600 atmospheres, that is to say, 3,200 pounds to each square two-fifths of an inch of its surface. ...
  
  ...which makes little sense. But even here, the French original comes to our rescue with being completely unambiguous:
  
  ... Nous avions atteint une profondeur de seize mille mètres — quatre lieues — et les flancs du Nautilus supportaient alors une pression de seize cents atmosphères, c'est-à-dire seize cents kilogrammes par chaque centimètre carré de sa surface! ...
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
17. Re:Dive! Dive! Dive! by camperdave · 2014-10-05 13:23 · Score: 1
  
  Touché. I bow to your superior knowledge of the source material. Further, you have inspired me to read the book.
  
  I used a nautical league of three nautical miles or 5556 metres for my calculation. If you use the French lieue of 4000 metres, as Verne appears to have used, then the math does indeed work out to twice the great circle circumference of the Earth. Nevertheless, I stand by my statement that 20000 leagues under the sea represents a coast hugging journey of once around the planet.
  
  As far as the 3200 pounds to each square two-fifths of an inch, well, 1600 kg was sloppily converted to 3200 pounds using using a 2kg/lb rate, and a centimeter was converted as two fifths of an inch. The result is more of a verbal translation than a unit conversion.
  
  --
  When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa by nanospook · 2014-10-02 12:32 · Score: 1

Chained to a piano..

--
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
1. Re:OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa by PPH · 2014-10-02 12:44 · Score: 1
  
  Pianos float.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
2. Re:OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa by BarbaraHudson · 2014-10-02 13:18 · Score: 1
  
  Chained to a piano..
  Chained to a piano..
  But Jimmy Hoffa doesn't. 55-gallon drums filled with cement are HEAVY!
  Or possibly like Star Trek:TOS "We'll outfit you with a pair of concrete galoshes!"
  
  --
  "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
3. Re:OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa by Tablizer · 2014-10-02 16:56 · Score: 1
  
  Pianos float.
  Not if you play the low keys
  
  --
  Table-ized A.I.
From the Preliminary Report by DoktorMidnight · 2014-10-02 12:33 · Score: 2

Features Discovered: (2) Krakens; (34) Fish Doin' It; (0) Sunken Cities; (1) VW Microbus
Half a league, half a league, by turkeydance · 2014-10-02 12:33 · Score: 1

half a league onward.
Fuck Beta by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 12:40 · Score: -1

c'mon you fuck-heads.
beta has too much fucking whitespace. ....
why the hell do you continue to force it down my throat. ....
it fuckin blows. ....
change it, or let me be. ....
Assholes!
RE by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 12:41 · Score: 0

MH370 ?
Where is Malaysian airlines... by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 12:54 · Score: -1

Hmm..So we can find planets millions of light years away and can find hidden features at the bottom of the sea, but can't spot missing Malaysian airlines !!
1. Re:Where is Malaysian airlines... by CeasedCaring · 2014-10-02 19:21 · Score: 1
  
  This data was probably collected BEFORE the crash! It just took a while to process.
2. Re:Where is Malaysian airlines... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2014-10-04 07:30 · Score: 1
  
  but can't spot missing Malaysian airlines !!
  I spotted missing Malaysia Airlines here!
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
MH370 by ynososiduts · 2014-10-02 13:26 · Score: 1

Maybe they'll find MH370.

--
622677120
1. Re:MH370 by drinkypoo · 2014-10-02 21:35 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe they'll find MH370.
  How? They're looking in the water.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Google Earth KMZ Files by DoctorBit · 2014-10-02 14:07 · Score: 4, Informative

From the paper, here are the links to Google Earth KMZ files to view the whole earth results:
Gravity anomaly map
VGG map
The new data is very cool, and a clear improvement from Google Earth's standard data. They've got all the world's water, even lakes. They only missed a 2000 km radius circle centered on the north pole. To see the difference, after opening the KMZ files in Google Earth, select and unselect the check boxes in the Temporary Places folder.
1. Re:Google Earth KMZ Files by advocate_one · 2014-10-02 22:13 · Score: 1
  
  They only missed a 2000 km radius circle centered on the north pole.
  because thet's where the UFOs pass through to get to and from the inner Earth... ;)
  
  --
  Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
2. Re:Google Earth KMZ Files by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 03:33 · Score: 0
  
  :-) Although if you read the paper they claim it's mainly because of the inclination of the satellite orbits and the abundance of sea ice. The latter increases the "noise" in the altimetry data at high latitudes, so they cropped it out.
3. Re:Google Earth KMZ Files by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 08:13 · Score: 0
  
  :-) Although if you read the paper they claim it's mainly because of the inclination of the satellite orbits and the abundance of sea ice. The latter increases the "noise" in the altimetry data at high latitudes, so they cropped it out.
  Bwahhahahahahaaahahahaa! wheeeeeew yeah.. There's always a good truthy explanation for missing data and such.
Are there other kinds? by El+Puerco+Loco · 2014-10-02 15:47 · Score: 1

Seems like all features of the sea floor qualify as "hidden".
you insen5itive 3lod! by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-02 17:38 · Score: -1

members all over bring yOur own to use the GNAA you're told. It's during play, this are there? Let's
Explanation of how it works by samwichse · 2014-10-03 00:14 · Score: 3, Informative

Here's an excellent bit from the USGS on just how the model works with lots of intermediate steps to show how they get the final model:
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/o...
Sam
Bermuda triangle by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 01:02 · Score: 0

Don't suppose they found any giant triangle shaped anomolies?
Are there other kinds? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-10-03 01:49 · Score: 0

Not quite. Only features which haven't been previously discovered are 'hidden'.