Data provided by the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 and NASA's Jason-1 satellites have enabled an international team of geophysicists to produce the most detailed map of the seabed obtained so far. This shows the structures located deeper and less explored with at least twice the precision of the last document of this type, made two decades ago.
To do this, the researchers, coordinated by Professor of Planetary Physics David Sandwell, from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, in San Diego, have studied the gravimetric measurements made by these probes. Thus, for example, thousands of mountains have "appeared", abyssal hills – the most common formation on the planet – and other underwater elevations, some more than a kilometer high. According to Sandwell and his colleagues in the journal Science , this information can be used to deepen our knowledge about the ocean floor , plate tectonics and make underwater navigation safer. And it is that, as they emphasize, 80% of the seas have not yet been mapped.
