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Alvin sampling a hydrothermal vent in 2021. Photo: WHOI-MISO, D. Fornari, S. A. Soule, WHOI/NSF/2022, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution The Alvin submersible is now capable of diving to 21,325 feet (6,500 meters), putting 99% of the ocean floor within its reach. Alvin’s upgrade has been in the works for over four years, with its last iteration completed in 2021. The veteran submersible can now dive nearly 6,700 feet (2,000 meters) deeper than before, enabling scientists to explore the ocean’s most abyssal recesses. “The new maximum depth puts roughly 98-99% of the global seafloor in reach —including the lower Abyssal Zone...

Far underneath the ice shelves of the Antarctic, there’s more life than expected, finds a recent study in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. During an exploratory survey, researchers drilled through 900 meters of ice in the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, situated on the south eastern Weddell Sea. At a distance of 260km away from the open ocean, under complete darkness and with temperatures of -2.2°C, very few animals have ever been observed in these conditions. But this study is the first to discover the existence of stationary animals — similar to sponges and potentially several previously unknown species — attached...

The reason that the ocean floor, especially the southern hemisphere oceans, is so poorly charted is that electromagnetic waves cannot penetrate the deep ocean (3-5 km = 2-3 mi). Instead, depths are commonly measured by timing the two-way travel time of an acoustic pulse. However because research vessels travel quite slowly (6m/s = 12 knots) it would take approximately 125 years to chart the ocean basins using the latest swath-mapping tools. To date, only a small fraction of the sea floor has been charted by ships. Fortunately, such a major mapping program is largely unnecessary because the ocean surface has...

story from AP, so, not risking an excerpt.

THE $90 million search for MH370 has discovered “man made objects” almost four kilometres under the surface of the southern Indian Ocean, but they are not the missing Boeing 777. Instead the debris is thought to be from an ancient shipwreck, comprising an anchor and other items. Australian Transport Safety Bureau Operational Search Director Peter Foley said they were “obviously disappointed” the discovery was not the missing aircraft.

he U.S. Navy has located a transport aircraft deep on the Pacific Ocean floor where it crashed in November, killing three sailors on board. The C-2A "Greyhound" aircraft, which was traveling to the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan when it crashed the day before Thanksgiving in the Philippine Sea, rests at a depth of about 18,500 feet (5,640 meters), the Japan-based 7th Fleet said in a statement Saturday. Salvaging it will be the deepest recovery attempt of an aircraft to date, the Navy said. The plane was located last week by a contracted salvage vessel that deployed a pinger locator...

The floor of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the most geologically interesting stretches of the Earth’s surface. The gulf’s peculiar history gave rise to a landscape riddled with domes, pockmarks, canyons, faults, and channels — all revealed in more detail than ever before by a new 1.4 billion-pixel map. This striking view of the ocean floor off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas was created by a government agency you’ve likely never heard of called the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The bureau’s job is to manage exploration and development of the country’s offshore mineral and energy...

Whilst undertaking detailed seabed scanning for the development of windfarm projects in the East Anglia Zone, off the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, windfarm developers ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) and Vattenfall uncovered something they weren't expecting -- an 'uncharted' wreck of a WWI German submarine, missing in action since 1915... SPR and Vattenfall used advanced sonar technology to scan over 6,000km2 of the seabed in the Southern North Sea over two years, which is nearly 4 times the size of Greater London (1,583km2). This work is critical to understand seabed conditions, and allow the companies to design the layout of their...

Storms off the west coast of Ireland have disturbed the seabed to reveal two 16th century cannons wrecked from the Spanish Armada. The cannons were brought to the surface this week by underwater archaeologists and are said to be in "extraordinarily good condition". They are thought to come from the wreck of the merchant vessel La Juliana, which sank in storms off Stredagh, Co Sligo on Ireland’s west coast in September 1588 along with two others,La Lavia and Santa Maria de Vision. The artifacts were recovered by the Underwater Archaeology Unit of Ireland’s Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht. One...

The Indonesian navy has retrieved from the seabed the tail of the AirAsia plane that crashed two weeks ago. Divers used an inflatable device to pull the tail to the sea's surface. They are also searching for the plane's "black box" flight recorders, which officials believe have been separated from the tail section. Forty-eight bodies have been retrieved so far.

Scientists have found 500 seabed vents bubbling methane into the Pacific Ocean off the United States, roughly doubling the number of known U.S. seeps of the powerful greenhouse gas, a study showed on Wednesday. Methane naturally escapes from the sea floor in many places around the world and can stoke global warming if it reaches the atmosphere. Worldwide, scientists are trying to see if rising ocean temperatures cause more leaks. "It appears that the entire coast off Washington, Oregon and California is a giant methane seep," Robert Ballard, who is famed for finding the wreck of the Titanic and has...

Despite the ever present wailing from green activists that we are sitting on a “methane catastrophe”, it’s simply business as usual for Earth in the Arctic. Even Dr. Gavin Schmidt of NASA GISS thinks the issue is “implausible”. This study further confirms that the issue is just another emotional overblown green issue of no merit.Methane seepage from the Arctic seabed occurring for millions of yearsFrom the Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Climate and EnvironmentMethane gas flares, up to 800 meters high, rise from the Arctic Ocean floor. That is the size of the tallest building in the world, Burj...

Vast ranges of volcanoes hidden under the oceans are presumed by scientists to be the gentle giants of the planet, oozing lava at slow, steady rates along mid-ocean ridges. But a new study shows that they flare up on strikingly regular cycles, ranging from two weeks to 100,000 years -- and, that they erupt almost exclusively during the first six months of each year. The pulses -- apparently tied to short- and long-term changes in earth's orbit, and to sea levels--may help trigger natural climate swings. Scientists have already speculated that volcanic cycles on land emitting large amounts of carbon...

Researchers have discovered hundreds of huge craters, with many over 3,000 feet wide, on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean. The craters in the Barents Sea, north of Norway and Russia, formed through huge mounds full of methane exploding suddenly and catastrophically around 12,000 years ago, and are still leaking methane. Scientists say the discovery could help explain why so many craters have appeared in Siberia over recent decades, with the same processes causing these explosive events. ... he Arctic ocean floor hosts vast amounts of methane trapped as hydrates, which are ice-like, solid mixtures of gas and water. These...

A remote part of the Indian Ocean has become, by chance, one of the best-mapped parts of the underwater world. The ocean is vast, deep, and unexplored. When Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared three years ago this week, the search brought the ocean’s vastness into sharp relief. This is how deep and dark it is three miles down. This is how unlikely you are to spot a downed airliner in 120,000 square nautical miles of open ocean. This is how much we know about the ocean floor—less than we know about the surface of Mars. As the search dragged on...

These incredible photographs show how New Zealand's 7.8 magnitude earthquake lifted the seabed two metres - and exploded through the sand. Dramatic aerial pictures reveal the scale of the devastation caused on the coastline north of Kaikoura, on the country's South Island. Scientists say the seabed lifted an estimated two metres on the foreshore and admit they have never seen anything like it. It comes as rain and strong winds battered central New Zealand on Thursday, threatening further damage - just days after the quake killed two people and sparked with huge landslides. More than 1,000 tourists and residents have...

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. Roughly 90% of the deep-ocean sea floor remains unmapped, a fact that’s been thrown...

NEW ORLEANS, (AP) -- The Coast Guard admiral overseeing cleanup of the BP oil spill says extensive sampling of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor has found oil in quantities too small to merit collection. The Coast Guard's findings — to be released in a report Friday — are in contrast to reports from independent scientists who say oil has extensively damaged the seafloor. "We are not finding any recoverable amounts of oil," Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft told The Associated Press. "We are finding traces of oil."

It goes without saying that most people no longer believe what British Petroleum is saying publicly about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf and the condition of the well structure. The reality is much more frightening... In a few crevices in Cyberspace, experts in the industry are whispering what they think is really going on..."OK let's get real about the Gulf of Mexico oil flow. There doesn't really seem to be much info on TOD [The Oil Drum - an online site where oil industry people congregate] that furthers more complete understanding of what's really happening in...