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Exploration: of The Ocean Basins

Mapping the ocean basins has been difficult due to oceans being hard to travel over, crude navigation, and opacity preventing seeing the seafloor. Modern technology has enabled customized research vessels, satellite navigation, and acoustic instruments. Early mapping included the Challenger Expedition finding the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and sonar later providing highly useful detection of underwater objects. Modern sonar systems precisely map seafloor features while cameras take high-resolution photos revealing details. Satellite measurements reveal seafloor features warping ocean surfaces like massive seamounts bulging via gravitational attraction.

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324 views3 pages

Exploration: of The Ocean Basins

Mapping the ocean basins has been difficult due to oceans being hard to travel over, crude navigation, and opacity preventing seeing the seafloor. Modern technology has enabled customized research vessels, satellite navigation, and acoustic instruments. Early mapping included the Challenger Expedition finding the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and sonar later providing highly useful detection of underwater objects. Modern sonar systems precisely map seafloor features while cameras take high-resolution photos revealing details. Satellite measurements reveal seafloor features warping ocean surfaces like massive seamounts bulging via gravitational attraction.

Uploaded by

Sergs jonel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Exploration 

Of The Ocean Basins

WRITTEN BY
Bruce Peter Luyendyk

Mapping the characteristics of the ocean basin has been difficult for several reasons.
First, the oceans are not easy to travel over; second, until recent times navigation has
been extremely crude, so that individual observations have been only loosely correlated
with one another; and, finally, the oceans are opaque to light—that is, the deep seafloor
cannot be seen from the ocean surface. Modern technology has given rise to customized
research vessels, satellite and electronic navigation, and sophisticated acoustic
instruments that mitigate some of these problems.
The Challenger Expedition, mounted by the British in 1872–76, provided the first
systematic view of a few of the major features of the seafloor. Scientists aboard the
HMS Challenger determined ocean depths by means of wire-line soundings and
discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Dredges brought up samples of rocks and sediments
off the seafloor. The main advance in mapping, however, did not occur until sonar was
developed in the early 20th century. This system for detecting the presence of objects
underwater by acoustic echo provided marine researchers with a highly useful tool,
since sound can be detected over several thousands of km in the ocean (visible light, by
comparison, can penetrate only 100 metres [about 330 feet] or so of water).

Modern sonar systems include the Seabeam multibeam echo sounder and


the GLORIA scanning sonar. They operate on the principle that the depth (or distance)
of the seafloor can be determined by multiplying one-half the elapsed time between a
downgoing acoustic pulse and its echo by the speed of sound in seawater (about 1,500
metres [4,900 feet] per second). Such multifrequency sonar systems permit the use of
different pulse frequencies to meet different scientific objectives. Acoustic pulses of 12
kilohertz (kHz), for example, are normally employed to measure ocean depth, while
lower frequencies—3.5 kHz to less than 100 hertz (Hz)—are used to map the thickness of
sediments in the ocean basins. Very high frequencies of 100 kHz or more are employed
in side-scanning sonar to measure the texture of the seafloor. The acoustic pulses are
normally generated by piezoelectric transducers. For determining subbottom structure,
low-frequency acoustic pulses are produced by explosives, compressed air, or water-jet
implosion. Near-bottom sonar systems, such as the Deep Tow of the Scripps Institution
of Oceanography (in La Jolla, Calif., U.S.), produce even more detailed images of the
seafloor and subbottom structure. The Deep Tow package contains both echo sounders
and side-scanning sonars, along with associated geophysical instruments, and is towed
behind a ship at slow speed 10 to 100 metres (33 to 330 feet) above the seafloor. It yields
very precise measurements of even finer-scale features than are resolvable with
Seabeam and other comparable systems.
Another notable instrument system is ANGUS, a deep-towed camera sled that can take
thousands of high-resolution photographs of the seafloor during a single day. It has
been successfully used in the detection of hydrothermal vents at spreading centres.
Overlapping photographic images make it possible to construct photomosaic strips
about 10 to 20 metres (33 to 66 feet) wide that reveal details on the order of centimetres.

Three major navigation systems are in use in modern marine geology. These include
electromagnetic systems such as loran and Earth-orbiting satellites. Acoustic
transponder arrays of two or more stations placed on the seafloor a few kilometres apart
are used to navigate deeply towed instruments, submersibles, and occasionally surface
research vessels when detailed mapping is conducted in small areas. These systems
measure the distance between the instrument package and the transponder sites and,
using simple geometry, compute fixes accurate to a few metres. Although the individual
transponders can be used to determine positions relative to the array with great
accuracy, the preciseness of the position of the array itself depends on which system is
employed to locate it.

Earth-orbiting satellites such as Seasat and Geosat have uncovered some significant


topographic features of the ocean basins. Seasat, launched in 1978, carried
a radar altimeter into orbit. This device was used to measure the distance between the
satellite path and the surfaces of the ocean and continents to 0.1 metre (0.3 foot). The
measurements revealed that the shape of the ocean surface is warped by seafloor
features: massive seamounts cause the surface to bulge over them because of
gravitational attraction. Similarly, the ocean surface downwarps occur over deep-sea
trenches. Using these satellite measurements of the ocean surface, William F.
Haxby computed the gravity field there. The resulting gravity
map provides comprehensive coverage of the ocean surface on a 5′-by-5′ grid that
depicts five nautical miles on each side at the Equator). Coverage as complete as this is
not available from echo soundings made from ships. Because the gravity field at the
ocean surface is a highly sensitive indicator of marine topography, this map reveals
various previously uncharted features, including seamounts, ridges, and fracture zones,
while improving the detail on other known features. In addition, the gravity map shows
a linear pattern of gravity anomalies that cut obliquely across the grain of the
topography. These anomalies are most pronounced in the Pacific basin; they are
apparently about 100 km (about 60 miles) across and some 1,000 km (about 600 miles)
long. They have an amplitude of approximately 10 milligals (0.001 percent of the Earth’s
gravity attraction) and are aligned west-northwest—very close to the direction in which
the Pacific Plate moves over the mantle below.
Summary
Mapping the features of the ocean area drained by a river
has been hard for more than two, reasons.

First, the oceans are not easy to travel over; second, until recent ti
mes driving or flying a vehicle to somewhere has been very rough
and rude), so that individual instances of watching, noticing, or
making statements have been only loosely strongly related
to one another; and, finally, the oceans are difficult to
understand to light-that is, the deep seafloor cannot be seen from 
the ocean surface.

Sound-related pulses of 12 thousand cycles per


second, for example, are  in a common and regular
way employed to measure ocean depth, while lower frequencies-
3.5 kHz to less than 100 hertz-are used to map the thickness of (m
aterials that sink in liquids in the ocean areas drained by a river).

The measurements showed that
the shape of the ocean surface is twisted by seafloor features
huge seamounts cause the surface to bulge over them because of r
elated to gravity attraction.

The ocean surface downwards happen over deep-sea trenches.

Using these satellite measurements of the ocean surface, William 
F. Haxby figured out the gravity field there.

The resulting gravity map provides complete and
thorough coverage of the ocean surface on a 5 by
5 grid that shows five nautical miles on each side at the Equator.

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