Posted on 05/04/2023 5:39:47 AM PDT by Red Badger
A chain of undersea volcanoes, also known as seamounts. (NOAA Ocean Exploration) Less than one-quarter of Earth's entire ocean floor has been mapped, leaving gaping holes in our understanding of the underwater realm.
Accidents await in the void: undiscovered seamounts – ancient mountains formed by volcanic activity – can rise thousands of meters in the darkness, putting unsuspecting submarines at risk.
Led by earth scientist Julie Gevorgian of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, a team of scientists has just discovered more than 19,000 new seamounts using a new batch of satellite data.
That so many underwater peaks have been found brooding beneath the ocean surface is "incredible to think about," Gevorgian told Newsweek.
"Especially when you realize just how big these seamounts are and how they were previously unknown."
Created by volcanic activity deep beneath the ocean's surface, seamounts can rise to around 3 to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) high. They tend to be easily detectable by sonar, but only if a ship happens to pass over them.
Smaller undersea seamounts less than 2 kilometers tall are even harder to find, though they tend to form near mid-ocean ridges where magma pushes through Earth's thin and fractured crust.
In the past decade or so, scientists have turned to satellite data to detect small bumps in the ocean surface and map where seamounts lie.
Where sonar uses sound waves that ricochet off the seafloor to map its features, satellite altimetry does so indirectly, measuring slight changes in sea surface height that reflect the tug of gravity coming from mounds in Earth's submerged crust. The larger the mound, the more its gravitational pull draws in seawater on top.
Using this method, Gevorgian and colleagues identified 19,325 new undersea volcanoes, adding to the 24,643 mapped seamounts that two members of the team had previously cataloged back in 2011 and ironing out some mistakes in the process.
That brings the total to 43,454 undersea mountains, almost doubling the number we knew about.
Many of the newly discovered seamounts are on the smaller side, thought to be too small to be detectable in satellite data. However, recent advances to expand coverage and improve the accuracy of satellite data from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 satellite and SARAL, the Indian and French space agencies' version, changed the picture.
Of the 700-odd peaks Gevorgian and colleagues discovered in areas with particularly good coverage, the smallest volcano measured just 421 meters high, a fairly small nodule as far as volcanoes go on the bumpy seafloor.
Most were taller than 700 meters, with some extending up to 2,500 meters above the seabed. Using these well-surveyed volcanoes as a guide, the researchers then estimated the shape and size of the other mounts they located.
Grid of six images showing three undersea volcanoes, mapped using satellite data and sonar. Three undersea volcanoes mapped using satellite data (left) compared to sonar (right). (Gevorgian et al., Earth and Space Science, 2023)
Researchers not involved in the work say the findings could deepen our understanding of plate tectonics, volcanism, and the movements of ocean currents and marine life, in vast areas of the ocean that have gone unmapped for so long.
Guiding nutrient-rich waters up from the deep, seamounts are havens for marine life traversing the desert-like oceans. Their steep slopes also meddle with ocean currents that move heat around the globe. And buried in their geology, researchers expect to find clues on plate tectonics and magmatism, along with prized rare-earth minerals.
"Due to the impact that seamounts have on the ocean and ecosystems, they are important features to study, map, and classify," Gevorgian and colleagues write in their published paper.
Despite this massive update to the number of known seamounts, the researchers think there could be thousands more still waiting to be uncovered. In 2011, they estimated there could be up to 55,000 undersea peaks globally – a figure that might need revising based on the new numbers.
"Our study definitely helped make progress in the global seamount catalog, but improvements in the data resolution can help us find more," Gevorgian told Newsweek.
Missions are already underway to help achieve this, but detecting smaller seamounts isn't easy: They can be obscured by ocean sediments piled over them, or by nearby seabed features and turbulent ocean currents that may scramble the subtle gravitational differences that satellites are designed to pick up.
The study has been published in Earth and Space Science.
The ocean floor is closest to the planets hot liquid core and it is news that they found this many volcanos down there?
Let’s thanks the almighty for bestowing these people upon us!! For what would we possibly do without them!??
Even with recent upgrades to subs like sonar, with the USN resorting to drag queens
for recruitment, expect more seamount collisions.
The big difference is the subs will back into the mount...
Can you say Methane......
I agree with your sarcasm and raise it by 100%.
I too wonder why this would be a surprise to anyone with a 3-digit IQ. Sheesh ...
Yeah, I’m wondering how much of it contributes to “global warming”.
There ain’t a damn thing we can do about it, either.
Are you telling us that the sea floor actually ‘spreads’, and really hot stuff oozed out over the millennia, forming new islands and continents? Preposterous...next thing you will say is that the Continents are moving around and running into each other. Wow, we are all going to die with all this Geo stuff happening around us. I am really concerned about Australia running in to us. Can we avoid it somehow?
And guess what...they just RECENTLY discovered a bevy of volcanoes under the Antarctica Ice...can you say duh...
Not only that, but the earth’s mantle is much closer to oceanic crust.
A few years back, some university in the UK wanted to drill through the mantle, probably at the Marianas Trench.
What could possibly go wrong?.........................
Wow. Were they all just laying there?
Scientists find hole in the bottom of the sea...........Film at eleven................
And remember that when those volcanoes erupt, they heat the ocean water that covers them. Meteorologist Joe Bastardi has proposed that scientists need to study the ocean warming via more active volcanos as the source of “global warming of the oceans.” He has specifically mentioned the western Pacific warming and the increased activity of the “Ring of Fire” volcanoes.
And, by warming the ocean the ocean releases CO2 into the atmosphere. Warmer oceans also release more water vapor, which in the arctic winter prevents the temperature from getting as low as normal. This increase in winter arctic temperatures is where most of the “global temperature warming” has occurred. This is the entire natural explanation to global warming.
Volcanoes are heating the oceans, releasing CO2 (which has little if any effect on the climate), increases water vapor in the atmosphere, raises arctic winter temperatures.
Nothing tangible in the increased temperatures of the earth has anything to do with CO2 or human activity.
Looks like a future bonanza of undersea mining prospects to me. The designs for the AI-directed robots that work those areas should be quite an advance in technology.
Thanks Red Badger.
Whenever I read about some amazing discovery on the bottom of the ocean I wonder ‘have the submarine guys known about this since the 70s but its been top secret?’ Seems like 20,000 volcanoes might be hard to miss.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
