How Much Of The Ocean Floor Has Been Mapped

The initiative that seeks to galvanise the creation of a full map of the ocean floor says one fifth of this task has now been completed.

How much of the ocean floor has been mapped. Since the ocean occupies roughly 70 of the earth s surface this leaves approximately 65 of the earth excluding dry land unexplored. Only about 5 of the world s seafloor has been mapped in some detail. 19 percent of earth s seafloor has now been mapped.

And of course actually to see the sea floor using cameras or our own eyes means getting even closer using remotely operated vehicles or manned submersibles. Only about five percent of the global ocean has been mapped by modern multibeam sonar systems to provide detailed information about the seafloor. It s part of an initiative aimed at mapping the entire seafloor by 2030.

So far less than 0 05 percent of the ocean floor has been mapped to that highest level of detail by sonar which is an area roughly equivalent in size to tasmania. Very little of the ocean floor has been mapped directly. Currently less than ten percent of the global ocean is mapped using modern sonar technology.

With careful processing small differences in sea surface heights and gravity can reveal detailed maps of the seafloor. The problem with that approach is that our oceans are vast and ships are small meaning only a tiny percentage of the ocean floor between 5 15 percent nasa estimates was mapped. For the ocean and coastal waters of the united states only about 35 percent has been mapped with modern methods.

In fact the entire ocean floor has been mapped to a maximum resolution of approximately 5 km which means that all features on the ocean floor that are larger than 5 km across have been mapped. It turns out that satellites can see below the sea surface. Some experts believe that the claim that only 5 of the ocean floor has been mapped leaving 95 of the ocean floor unmapped is not completely accurate.