New Map of Ocean Seafloor Reveals Stunning Details of How Continents Formed

Scientists have created a new map of the world's seafloor, showing an unprecedented level of detail when it comes to the mountains and trenches that rise and sink beneath the waves. The new map could lend insight into the formation of the continents themselves.

The new map was created using a scientific model that captures gravity measurements of the ocean seafloor. The new map actually is formed with data from the ESA's CryoSat-2 satellite, which primarily examines polar ice, but also operates continuously over the oceans. The researchers also pulled data from NASA's sallite, Jason-1, which was redirected to map the gravity field during the last year of its 12-year mission.

"Although CryoSat-2's primary mission is the cryosphere, we knew as soon as we selected its orbit that it would be invaluable for marine geodesy, and this work proves the point," said Richard Francis, co-author of the new paper, in a news release.

The new map actually shows thousands of previously uncharted mountains rising from the seafloor. Yet more importantly, the map sheds light on continent formation. Previously unseen features include newly exposed continental connections across South America and Africa, and new evidence for seafloor spreading ridges at the Gulf of Mexico that were active about 150 million years ago but are now buried by mile-thick layers of sediments. These details in particular give hints as to how these continents were formed and are still changing today.

"One of the most important uses of the new marine gravity field will be to improve the estimates of seafloor depth in the 80 percent of the oceans that remains uncharted or is buried beneath thick sediment," write the authors in the report.

The findings reveal a bit more about the seafloor could help with future research. In fact, the new map provides the foundation for the upcoming new version of Google's ocean maps in order to fill large voids between shipboard depth profiles.

The findings are published in the journal Science.

Want to see the map for yourself? You can access it here.