The video discusses the current state of ocean floor mapping and the challenges associated with it. Despite the vast expanse of our oceans, our knowledge of the ocean floor is limited compared to other celestial bodies like Mars, largely due to the difficulty of accessing and mapping the ocean depths. The video highlights that Google Maps, for example, shows a topography of the ocean that is an approximation, with the actual ocean floor being much less detailed. This is due to the fact that light cannot penetrate past a certain distance, limiting our ability to see the ocean floor.
The video notes that we use sonar technology, invented over a century ago, to map the ocean. Sonar sends out acoustic waves that bounce off the ocean floor, returning data that can be used to create maps. However, these maps are not always clear, particularly in areas with underwater mountains or valleys, due to the lack of data.
The video mentions Seabed 2030, an international group aiming to map the entire ocean floor in detail by 2030. Seabed 2030 plans to use cutting-edge ocean tech, including underwater robots and artificial intelligence, to gather data. The group aims to map even the most unknown areas down to a resolution of 800 meters, with high-traffic areas mapped down to only a few meters.
The video concludes by emphasizing that while there are concerns about what we might do with the newfound knowledge from these maps, the lack of mapping has not stopped mining or other activities in the ocean. It argues that we should not be afraid of knowledge, but rather use it wisely for the betterment of our understanding and use of our environment. The video sees this exploration as a step towards understanding and utilizing one of the last unknown places on our planet.
1. The ocean is terrifying but the maps we have of it are not precise.
2. We know less about the ocean floor than we do about the surface of Mars.
3. We've mapped Mars to a resolution of 5 meters per pixel.
4. We've mapped the land on Earth to about 30 centimeters.
5. Most of our oceans are mapped to a resolution of 1.5 kilometers, which is 300 times less detail.
6. We use the ocean for various purposes such as carrying internet traffic, fighting wars, getting food from it, and using it for global trade.
7. 71% of the earth's surface is water.
8. The ocean is incredibly deep and scary and amazing which makes it very hard to map.
9. The deepest recorded natural point is 10935 meters or 6.8 miles deep.
10. The ocean is incredibly deep and scary and amazing which makes it very hard to map.
11. The surface of the ocean isn't flat and it is ever so slightly the shape of what's below it.
12. The gravitational field of the earth isn't absolutely constant, so if there's a deep trench, there'll be ever such a slight dip down in the sea surface above it.
13. The next time that you look out across the water, we're using satellites to send radar pulses down to the surface of the Earth measure the height of the water in different places and then estimate the shape of the ocean floor.
14. The radar on the ocean surface technique doesn't give us a very precise view of the seabed.
15. For example, see these bumps and ridges right here? We know that those are underwater mountains, but if you try and zoom in it gets blurry.
16. In 1913, a German inventor created a device that could send acoustic waves into the water and record the time that it took for them to bounce back. This is sonar.
17. In the 1940s, a woman named Marie Tharp turned those sonar measurements into maps.
18. The maps showed mountains and valleys and all kinds of things that we'd never seen before.
19. They were some of if not THE first ocean floor maps ever created, but they've largely been forgotten by history.
20. In researching this story, rare physical copies of them exist at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
21. Sonar devices today still send thousands of beams down.
22. The goal of Seabed 2030 is to map the entire ocean floor in detail by 2030.
23. Seabed 2030 is getting data from new sources.
24. Seabed 2030 is getting data from the cutting edge ocean tech used by many of these groups.
25. Seabed 2030 is using robots to explore underwater marine habitats.
26. Seabed 2030 is using AI to spot something interesting and investigate it to a higher level of accuracy.
27. When the project started, we only had detailed maps for 6% of the ocean floor. Now, 25%.
28. Some people are worried about what we'll do with these maps. They think that better data might mean destruction if we find something valuable like minerals to mine.
29. But as Steve put it: "The lack of map is not the barrier to any of those people going out there and doing mining. You can't manage what you haven't measured and a map whether it's a map of the land or a map of the seabed, puts you all on the level playing field."
30. Saying that we don't want information because we're afraid of what we'll do with it... That's not what helps people. It's our responsibility to use what we learn wisely.