Maps of the lunar surface are better than those of the Earth’s ocean floor, but this situation is changing thanks to high-resolution data collected in space by satellites. Accurate maps of the seabed are essential for various maritime activities, such as navigation and the laying of underwater communications cables, understanding deep-sea currents and tides, which affect life at depth, as well as geological processes such as plate tectonics.
Seamounts and other seafloor formations, such as smaller abyssal hills, influence the movement of heat and nutrients in deep waters and can attract life. A geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and his colleagues used a year’s worth of SWOT data to focus on seamounts, abyssal hills and underwater continental margins, where continental crust meets oceanic crust.
