Satellites Reveal Hidden Features At the Bottom of Earth's Seas

sciencehabit writes 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.

So did they find Atlantis?

[BarbaraHudson]

I'm sure there will be many people posting about how "there's a conspiracy to hide Atlantis, which is why they haven't 'found' it in this study."

Re:So did they find Atlantis?

[pr0t0]

Of course they aren't going to find it. It's all the way over in the Pegasus galaxy.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you missed the final episode.

Re:

[rossdee]

"I think you missed the final episode."

Thats because they (the SyFy channel) cancelled the show

Re:

[__aaclcg7560]

Nah... They're too busy looking for Davy's locker.

Re:So did they find Atlantis?

[avgjoe62]

Someday, SOMEDAY we will discover a race of super human vegan Atlantean descendants ruled by Amelia Earhart, living inside a hollow Earth, flying UFOs powered by perpetual power from magnets, guarded by a race of super intelligent Yetis all of whom are Mensa members. THEN what are you going to do with your skepticism, huh?

Just you wait and see. Edgar Cayce will be proven correct and all you sheeple will realize it too late!!!

/sarcasm

Re:

[LynnwoodRooster]

Uhhh, that's a heck of a ramble there. Total lunacy. Everyone KNOWS it's the lizard people acting as guards...

Re:

[Em Adespoton]

Don't throw the Doctor into the classics please -- even if he's a classic himself.

But I'd like to know why he left out the crystal skulls.

Re:

[JoeMerchant]

If the multiverse is true, then, yes - that has happened, just not here.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[Paleolibertarian]

How deep is a league? 5.55600 kilometers.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Unless you're a Frenchman. ;)

Re:

[rossdee]

" How deep is a league?"

6 tackles

Re:

[codepigeon]

How deep is a league? about 3,000 fathoms

Re:Dive! Dive! Dive!

[camperdave]

Considering that 20,000 leagues down would take you all the way through the Earth, and then out the other side about another seven or eight planetary diameters out into space, or more than twice the altitude of geostationary satellites, I think it's safe to say that the 20,000 leagues refers to a horizontal distance travelled rather than a depth. In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line. If you're wandering along the coast, like Magellan and Drake did, then 20,000 leagues would be once around the planet.

Re:

[CeasedCaring]

"20,000 leagues would be once around the planet." Agreed. A league is a measure if distance, not depth.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line.

Only almost exactly two times, actually.

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[camperdave]

In those terms it would be 2.7 times around the Earth, if travelling in a straight line.

Only almost exactly two times, actually.

Well, it all depends on which definition of league you use. That's the beauty of the customary system; you can choose the units that make you right. "Well, if you use the Tanner's league, yes. But if you measure it using the Apothecary's league..."

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Except that you're NOT free to choose anything here. Post-revolution France abolished all the different lieues of the Ancien Régime [wikipedia.org] and essentially replaced them with the lieue métrique sized exactly at 4,000 meters. That includes the span of Jules Verne's life. And even in case that some people used the older measures, you can easily divine the lenght of Verne's lieue from the English translation of the book whenever a distance is expressed in both leagues and miles:

... On January 2, we had made [google.com]

Re:

[camperdave]

Touché. I bow to your superior knowledge of the source material. Further, you have inspired me to read the book.

I used a nautical league of three nautical miles or 5556 metres for my calculation. If you use the French lieue of 4000 metres, as Verne appears to have used, then the math does indeed work out to twice the great circle circumference of the Earth. Nevertheless, I stand by my statement that 20000 leagues under the sea represents a coast hugging journey of once around the planet.

As far

Re:

[Em Adespoton]

Depends... are those major leagues, minor leagues or little leagues?

Re:

[plopez]

Or metric leagues ;)

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

The leagues in the novel are indeed metric leagues, each exactly 4,000 meters long.

OMG! They found Jimmy Hoffa

[nanospook]

Chained to a piano..

Re:

[PPH]

Pianos float.

Re:

[BarbaraHudson]

Chained to a piano..

Chained to a piano..

But Jimmy Hoffa doesn't. 55-gallon drums filled with cement are HEAVY!

Or possibly like Star Trek:TOS "We'll outfit you with a pair of concrete galoshes!"

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[Tablizer]

Pianos float.

Not if you play the low keys

From the Preliminary Report

[DoktorMidnight]

Features Discovered: (2) Krakens; (34) Fish Doin' It; (0) Sunken Cities; (1) VW Microbus

Half a league, half a league,

[turkeydance]

half a league onward.

Re:

[CeasedCaring]

This data was probably collected BEFORE the crash! It just took a while to process.

Re:

[K. S. Kyosuke]

but can't spot missing Malaysian airlines !!

I spotted missing Malaysia Airlines here! [google.com]

MH370

[ynososiduts]

Maybe they'll find MH370.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Maybe they'll find MH370.

How? They're looking in the water.

Google Earth KMZ Files

[DoctorBit]

From the paper, here are the links to Google Earth KMZ files to view the whole earth results:

Gravity anomaly map [ucsd.edu]

VGG map [ucsd.edu]

The new data is very cool, and a clear improvement from Google Earth's standard data. They've got all the world's water, even lakes. They only missed a 2000 km radius circle centered on the north pole. To see the difference, after opening the KMZ files in Google Earth, select and unselect the check boxes in the Temporary Places folder.

Re:

[advocate_one]

They only missed a 2000 km radius circle centered on the north pole.

because thet's where the UFOs pass through to get to and from the inner Earth... ;)

Are there other kinds?

[El Puerco Loco]

Seems like all features of the sea floor qualify as "hidden".

Explanation of how it works

[samwichse]

Here's an excellent bit from the USGS on just how the model works with lots of intermediate steps to show how they get the final model:

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2000/o... [usgs.gov]

Sam