Progress of submarine topographic mapping project “Seabed 2030” reached 25% in 6 years

It has been revealed that the project `` Seabed 2030 '', which aims to create a complete topographical map of the ocean floor that humans do not yet have, has made 25% of its progress over the past six years. As the name suggests, the goal was to complete the project in 2030, but it seems quite difficult to achieve that schedule.

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New Seafloor Map Only 25% Done, with 6 Years to Go - Eos

Seabed 2030 is a project to create an ocean floor map based on the idea that humans do not have a complete map of the Earth, so we do not fully understand it.

The project was announced by Nippon Foundation President Yohei Sasakawa at

Project director Jamie McMichael-Phillips said: 'Basty mapping improves our understanding of how ocean space is used, resource management and the threat of tsunamis. In essence, what we don't know We can't control it,' he said.

It is said that humans know more about the surface of Mars than the ocean floor, but in January 2024, the Schmidt Institute for Oceanography, a partner of Seabed 2030, announced that it would We have achieved results such as discovering four.

However, the range is 6% in the first year and 24.9% in 2023. To achieve the project's goals, 75% of the ocean floor will need to be mapped in the remaining six years, but most of the world's oceans are deeper than 3,200 meters deep and are permanently covered by ice near the North and South Poles. There are issues such as:

'We recognize the magnitude of the challenge that remains and are working with the global community to complete the work by 2030,' McMichael-Phillips said. 'We know that we are getting closer to a fully mapped planet.'