Agreed, but you have to admit that it isn't bloddy likely that NO ONE would have noticed the formation of a new 6,000 foot sea mount. It had to have some seismic effects that someone, somewhere, would have said "hey, look at this!"
By the same token, I think that the Navy should launch a program to update their charts, inch by inch, with the absolutely most precise possible instrumentation possible. Not just in this area, but worldwide.
We should have hyperaccurate surveys of the Earths surface, including under the oceans, that are constantly being updated and checked. That should be a basic part of our government's scientific and technological responsibility. As has been proven repeatedly, this type of investment truly returns a hundred fold what we put into it.
I don't deny that having a more accurate survey of the oceans' bottoms would be worthwhile, even if just to have saved one life. But it's not possible to instantly do this. The oceans are so enormous that even if every survey ship bent to the task, it would take years and probably decades to complete.
Many world war two boats were lost when they grounded and couldn't be refloated. This wasn't necessarily due to mistakes, but more to the limitations of the charts and the encouragement given to commanders to be aggressive and take risks.
Submarines in transit typically travel in well known and surveyed lanes. However, I don't know if there is such a strip between Guam and Australia (but my guess is that there is) or whether San Francisco was in it (my guess is that they were or this would have been mentioned after the admiral's mast results were made semipublic). If my two guesses are correct, it still doesn't explain how a large seamount was uncharted in a transit lane (only the phrase "discolored water" shows up on one of the two charts they had onboard).
If it is recent, one would think its creation would have been accompanied by detectable tremors, tidal waves, etc. that would have been noticed.
But who knows. Lots of guessing.
MPA and Ship's Diving Officer
USS San Francisco, 2003-04