Nearly One-Fifth of World’s Ocean Floor Now Mapped

Topographic map released at the start of the project (August 2017): Rider Glacier in northern Greenland

Topographic map of the 2020 version released this time: Same place

Nearly One-Fifth of World’s Ocean Floor Now Mapped

On the occasion of World Hydrography Day, The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, which aims to map the entire global ocean floor by 2030,

has announced the inclusion of 14.5 million square kilometers of new bathymetric data in the latest GEBCO Grid.

Nearly one-fifth of the world’s ocean floor has now been mapped, with the new data equating to an area twice the size of Australia.

Over the past year, coverage of the seabed

has risen to 19% from 15%. When Seabed 2030 was launched in 2017, only 6% of the oceans had been mapped to modern standards.

The effort to complete the map of the world’s oceanshas gathered significant momentum since its launch, with Seabed 2030 rallying over 100 international organizations in support.

The Project

now has 133 official partners, contributors and supporters, and continues to pursue new collaborations in data collection and technical innovation.

The Nippon Foundation

https://www.nippon-foundation.or.jp/en/news/articles/2020/20200621-45318.html