Scientists Create One of the Most Detailed Maps of the Ocean Floor, Find Close to 100,000 Submerged Mountains

For decades, humanity has gazed at the stars, dreaming of Mars and the Moon, while a vast and mysterious frontier has remained largely unexplored right here on Earth—the ocean floor. Despite covering more than 70% of the planet’s surface, the ocean’s deep and dark abyss has remained frustratingly elusive. Although we have mapped the lunar surface intricately, only about a quarter of the ocean floor has been charted with precision. But that is changing rapidly. All thanks to a revolutionary leap in satellite technology revamping our perception, stated Daily Galaxy.

In a stunning breakthrough, experts using NASA’s SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite have discovered almost 100,000 previously unknown underwater mountains, or seamounts, dispersed across the globe’s ocean floors. This stellar discovery, made possible by cutting-edge satellite data, more than doubles the number of known seamounts—a revelation with major implications for oceanography, marine ecosystems, and Earth sciences. David Sandwell, a geophysicist, remarked, "The SWOT satellite represented a breakthrough in our ability to map the seabed," via Daily Galaxy.

In the past, scientists relied on sonar-equipped ships to map underwater terrain, but this method was slow and expensive. With just 25% of the ocean floor mapped this way, a full picture was far from complete. That was not the end of the story—Enter SWOT, a collaborative mission between NASA and the French space agency CNES, launched to monitor Earth’s water surfaces with unparalleled precision. You must be wondering how this SWOT works. By measuring centimeter-scale differences in sea surface height, SWOT detects subtle gravitational changes caused by underwater stuff. Terrains like hills, ridges, and seamounts, according to Daily Galaxy.

Yao Yu, an oceanographer, shared, "Abyssal hills are the most abundant landform on Earth, covering about 70 percent of the ocean floor…These hills are only a few kilometers wide, which makes them hard to observe from space. We were surprised that SWOT could see them so well." Most of the newfound seamounts are way smaller than what earlier satellites could detect, with some rising less than 1 kilometer from the ocean floor. Still, these tiny-looking giants have a prominent influence. Seamounts mold deep-sea currents, guide nutrient flows, and serve as biological hotspots teeming with marine life, stated SciTech Daily.

Moreover, Sandwell noted, "We won’t get the full ship-based mapping done by then…But SWOT will help us fill it in, getting us close to achieving the 2030 objective." These undersea peaks act like underwater oases, attracting more organisms and flourishing rich ecosystems in the otherwise barren deep. Yu also highlighted the discovery of abyssal hills — parallel ridges formed by tectonic activity — which cover a whopping 70% of the ocean floor. Apart from the scientific genius it is, this brand-new mapping capability carries real-world applications. It will make ten times better underwater exploration and aid in planning routes for undersea communication cables. All this while bringing experts to the ambitious goal of fully mapping the seafloor by 2030. Fingers crossed! Let’s see what the future holds for humans, stated SciTech Daily.