 |
| Only ~24.9% of the seafloor is 'mapped' |
Only a small portion of the ocean has been closely looked at:
"As of 2023, 24.9% of the global seafloor had been mapped with modern high-resolution technology (multibeam sonar systems), usually mounted to ships, that can reveal the seafloor in greater detail. While almost 50% of the seafloor beneath U.S. waters had been mapped to these modern standards, the nation’s seafloor is larger than the land area of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories combined. Thus, there’s still a significant amount of seafloor left to be mapped at high resolution."
(NOAA, Ocean Exploration). It is considered to be a risky business ("What we know about the ocean’s depths — and why it’s so risky to explore it").
But there are other ways to determine the potential depths of the oceans.
One way is to notice the known depths at which in situ measurements have been taken of seawater temperatures and then stored in the World Ocean Database.
We can determine that ocean depths are some-amount deeper than the deepest of those measurements can't we?
Here are some Dredd Blog indications stored in my SQL database (they are counts of averages of seawater temperatures at the given depths ... a '0' means no measurements have been recorded at that depth):
North Atlantic:
10m: 3999Equatorial Atlantic:
20m: 3935
30m: 3927
50m: 3923
75m: 3889
100m: 3862
125m: 3746
150m: 3808
200m: 3725
250m: 3588
300m: 3537
400m: 3467
500m: 3409
600m: 3239
700m: 3192
800m: 3070
900m: 3137
1000m: 3113
1100m: 2892
1200m: 2840
1300m: 2827
1400m: 2839
1500m: 2865
1750m: 2658
2000m: 2632
2500m: 2107
3000m: 1845
3500m: 1560
4000m: 1225
4500m: 940
5000m: 580
5500m: 226
>5500m: 57
10m: 981South Atlantic:
20m: 955
30m: 959
50m: 957
75m: 935
100m: 923
125m: 897
150m: 922
200m: 901
250m: 896
300m: 897
400m: 897
500m: 887
600m: 815
700m: 816
800m: 789
900m: 805
1000m: 772
1100m: 721
1200m: 699
1300m: 684
1400m: 687
1500m: 669
1750m: 630
2000m: 595
2500m: 420
3000m: 398
3500m: 383
4000m: 337
4500m: 265
5000m: 123
5500m: 41
>5500m: 16
10m: 1868North Pacific:
20m: 1826
30m: 1831
50m: 1821
75m: 1805
100m: 1785
125m: 1750
150m: 1793
200m: 1737
250m: 1758
300m: 1752
400m: 1720
500m: 1691
600m: 1570
700m: 1568
800m: 1513
900m: 1561
1000m: 1527
1100m: 1405
1200m: 1379
1300m: 1333
1400m: 1363
1500m: 1357
1750m: 1282
2000m: 1129
2500m: 772
3000m: 726
3500m: 676
4000m: 597
4500m: 485
5000m: 270
5500m: 95
>5500m: 13
10m: 5243Equatorial Pacific:
20m: 5178
30m: 5174
50m: 5160
75m: 5109
100m: 5053
125m: 4960
150m: 4987
200m: 4915
250m: 4871
300m: 4882
400m: 4834
500m: 4791
600m: 4573
700m: 4517
800m: 4391
900m: 4462
1000m: 4329
1100m: 4016
1200m: 3892
1300m: 3742
1400m: 3711
1500m: 3659
1750m: 3252
2000m: 2894
2500m: 2294
3000m: 2112
3500m: 1859
4000m: 1580
4500m: 1281
5000m: 985
5500m: 628
>5500m: 203
10m: 2714South Pacific:
20m: 2660
30m: 2657
50m: 2655
75m: 2616
100m: 2597
125m: 2568
150m: 2586
200m: 2543
250m: 2535
300m: 2528
400m: 2517
500m: 2469
600m: 2344
700m: 2307
800m: 2255
900m: 2312
1000m: 2229
1100m: 2027
1200m: 1929
1300m: 1867
1400m: 1836
1500m: 1791
1750m: 1664
2000m: 1509
2500m: 1078
3000m: 919
3500m: 789
4000m: 588
4500m: 387
5000m: 235
5500m: 98
>5500m: 38
10m: 2799North Indian:
20m: 2757
30m: 2762
50m: 2748
75m: 2691
100m: 2647
125m: 2637
150m: 2683
200m: 2613
250m: 2658
300m: 2656
400m: 2609
500m: 2582
600m: 2418
700m: 2355
800m: 2263
900m: 2342
1000m: 2249
1100m: 2084
1200m: 1991
1300m: 1944
1400m: 1949
1500m: 1886
1750m: 1819
2000m: 1308
2500m: 863
3000m: 803
3500m: 682
4000m: 577
4500m: 418
5000m: 273
5500m: 133
>5500m: 36
10m: 156Equatorial Indian:
20m: 141
30m: 142
50m: 139
75m: 135
100m: 128
125m: 123
150m: 123
200m: 118
250m: 115
300m: 113
400m: 113
500m: 111
600m: 103
700m: 101
800m: 95
900m: 96
1000m: 90
1100m: 84
1200m: 75
1300m: 70
1400m: 70
1500m: 71
1750m: 64
2000m: 51
2500m: 24
3000m: 15
3500m: 2
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 1
10m: 544South Indian:
20m: 538
30m: 538
50m: 538
75m: 538
100m: 535
125m: 530
150m: 535
200m: 517
250m: 517
300m: 522
400m: 517
500m: 508
600m: 459
700m: 462
800m: 442
900m: 465
1000m: 453
1100m: 412
1200m: 411
1300m: 402
1400m: 396
1500m: 406
1750m: 362
2000m: 319
2500m: 182
3000m: 176
3500m: 151
4000m: 125
4500m: 70
5000m: 29
5500m: 2
>5500m: 0
10m: 2380Southern:
20m: 2356
30m: 2360
50m: 2353
75m: 2290
100m: 2283
125m: 2243
150m: 2277
200m: 2219
250m: 2223
300m: 2195
400m: 2173
500m: 2131
600m: 1981
700m: 1990
800m: 1957
900m: 2038
1000m: 1969
1100m: 1836
1200m: 1786
1300m: 1768
1400m: 1781
1500m: 1738
1750m: 1627
2000m: 1302
2500m: 816
3000m: 753
3500m: 661
4000m: 529
4500m: 382
5000m: 215
5500m: 82
>5500m: 16
10m: 4362Arctic:
20m: 4306
30m: 4316
50m: 4342
75m: 4318
100m: 4296
125m: 4239
150m: 4299
200m: 4200
250m: 4217
300m: 4148
400m: 4007
500m: 3939
600m: 3621
700m: 3723
800m: 3475
900m: 3714
1000m: 3539
1100m: 3221
1200m: 3093
1300m: 3016
1400m: 3122
1500m: 3032
1750m: 3039
2000m: 2446
2500m: 1923
3000m: 1736
3500m: 1476
4000m: 1081
4500m: 668
5000m: 246
5500m: 37
>5500m: 15
10m: 3699Mediterranean:
20m: 3606
30m: 3550
50m: 3418
75m: 3277
100m: 3179
125m: 2996
150m: 3042
200m: 2893
250m: 2801
300m: 2651
400m: 2178
500m: 1876
600m: 1583
700m: 1598
800m: 1154
900m: 1191
1000m: 1027
1100m: 806
1200m: 777
1300m: 734
1400m: 737
1500m: 761
1750m: 649
2000m: 623
2500m: 444
3000m: 332
3500m: 211
4000m: 49
4500m: 7
5000m: 6
5500m: 32
>5500m: 0
10m: 743Black Sea:
20m: 721
30m: 707
50m: 695
75m: 684
100m: 678
125m: 655
150m: 659
200m: 642
250m: 620
300m: 621
400m: 605
500m: 605
600m: 564
700m: 564
800m: 550
900m: 561
1000m: 555
1100m: 531
1200m: 502
1300m: 484
1400m: 479
1500m: 470
1750m: 436
2000m: 380
2500m: 233
3000m: 106
3500m: 60
4000m: 27
4500m: 10
5000m: 3
5500m: 2
>5500m: 2
10m: 253Baltic Sea:
20m: 242
30m: 234
50m: 240
75m: 221
100m: 225
125m: 112
150m: 207
200m: 204
250m: 169
300m: 188
400m: 181
500m: 163
600m: 148
700m: 149
800m: 85
900m: 60
1000m: 47
1100m: 41
1200m: 35
1300m: 36
1400m: 35
1500m: 32
1750m: 10
2000m: 1
2500m: 0
3000m: 0
3500m: 0
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
10m: 367Persian Gulf:
20m: 367
30m: 367
50m: 365
75m: 357
100m: 339
125m: 323
150m: 272
200m: 234
250m: 131
300m: 112
400m: 89
500m: 19
600m: 1
700m: 1
800m: 1
900m: 1
1000m: 1
1100m: 1
1200m: 1
1300m: 0
1400m: 0
1500m: 0
1750m: 0
2000m: 0
2500m: 0
3000m: 0
3500m: 0
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
10m: 49Red Sea:
20m: 47
30m: 47
50m: 46
75m: 44
100m: 43
125m: 42
150m: 42
200m: 41
250m: 39
300m: 39
400m: 39
500m: 39
600m: 37
700m: 36
800m: 35
900m: 36
1000m: 33
1100m: 30
1200m: 25
1300m: 24
1400m: 24
1500m: 24
1750m: 23
2000m: 11
2500m: 8
3000m: 4
3500m: 0
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
10m: 153Hudson Bay:
20m: 147
30m: 146
50m: 137
75m: 135
100m: 135
125m: 131
150m: 133
200m: 133
250m: 132
300m: 134
400m: 130
500m: 126
600m: 115
700m: 103
800m: 94
900m: 101
1000m: 93
1100m: 79
1200m: 63
1300m: 52
1400m: 51
1500m: 54
1750m: 44
2000m: 27
2500m: 5
3000m: 1
3500m: 0
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
10m: 40Arabian Sea:
20m: 38
30m: 32
50m: 32
75m: 27
100m: 23
125m: 14
150m: 11
200m: 0
250m: 0
300m: 0
400m: 0
500m: 0
600m: 0
700m: 0
800m: 0
900m: 0
1000m: 0
1100m: 0
1200m: 0
1300m: 0
1400m: 0
1500m: 0
1750m: 0
2000m: 0
2500m: 0
3000m: 0
3500m: 0
4000m: 0
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
10m: 64
20m: 64
30m: 64
50m: 61
75m: 57
100m: 56
125m: 56
150m: 56
200m: 55
250m: 56
300m: 56
400m: 56
500m: 56
600m: 53
700m: 52
800m: 54
900m: 54
1000m: 54
1100m: 47
1200m: 48
1300m: 44
1400m: 44
1500m: 46
1750m: 43
2000m: 34
2500m: 20
3000m: 15
3500m: 5
4000m: 2
4500m: 0
5000m: 0
5500m: 0
>5500m: 0
The previous post in this series is here.
