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“I think people look at the sea often as just a flat surface like it’s the surface of a swimming pool, but the reality is that there’s a whole world going on down there that people don’t have a vision of at all. We know more about the surface of the moon than we would ever probably find out about what’s down in our deep ocean.”
For early explorers, navigating the ocean was a means to an end. For scientists at Ireland’s Marine Institute, mapping the ocean itself is the prize. Welcome to Pulse of the Planet’s Science Diaries, a glimpse of the world of science from the inside. Cillian Reed is a hydrographic surveyor.
“Ireland is kind of seen as a little teddy bear shaped island on the east side of the Atlantic, but the reality of it is the actual land above the sea is only one tenth I think of the entire land mass of Ireland. I think it’s 220 million acres under the sea of Ireland’s territory. For us to have mapped that and to know the shape and size of it is very significant for the country and for advancements of these technologies.”
Last time Galway Bay was mapped, in the mid-19th century, the British Admiralty took depth measurements by lowering a lead weight attached to a long line into the sea. Today, researchers are using tools like sonar, echosounding, and satellite positioning to survey the ocean floor with stunning precision.
“When we’re mapping, you can pick up any feature that’s more than one meter squared on the sea floor absolutely everything. It’s basically like a topographic map of the sea floor, so instead of coming up from sea level it’s going down from sea level.”
Scientists are using these ocean maps to locate sea bed habitats, pinpoint possible oil reserves, and better understand the dynamic processes that shape the earth.