bathymetry Archives

Sampling fluids of 180 degree Celsius at the White Sealhound structure. Photo: MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

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Newly Discovered Hydrothermal Fields Off The Island Of Milos

by Keith CowingDecember 2, 2025December 2, 2025

The study identifies three major vent areas — Aghia Kiriaki, Paleochori–Thiorychia, and Vani — all located along active fault zones that run across the Milos shelf.

Schematic representation of extreme environments across the Indian subcontinent and the Indian Ocean that serve as planetary analogues. Terrestrial ecosystems include mud volcanoes, saline habitats, desert sandstorms, glaciers, ophiolites, geothermal springs, high-altitude lakes, and natural caves and mines. Marine ecosystems of the Indian Ocean remain relatively underexplored, with documented sites including deep-sea hydrothermal vents and subsurface trenches. This figure is adapted and inspired by Merino et al. (2019).617618619620

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Planetary Analog Sites In The Indian Subcontinent And The Indian Ocean: Underexplored Environments Suited For Astrobiological And Space Research

by Keith CowingOctober 5, 2025October 5, 2025

The central objective of astrobiology is to evaluate the habitability of other planetary bodies and given the high cost and logistical complexity of space missions, preliminary investigations of planetary analog […]

Autonomous Underwater Vehicle -- University of Sydney

Away Teams & Field Reports, Exploration Gear & Tech, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Sample Return, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ocean Planet Expedition: Robots Map Unexplored Depths

by Keith CowingJune 23, 2025June 23, 2025

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) from the University of Sydney has taken a deep dive in the oceans surrounding Norfolk Island on an scientific expedition to document previously unexplored reefs.

Deep-sea dive activity, 1958–2024. (A) Deep-sea dive activity has been concentrated in a small number of locations, particularly (B) Monterey Bay, USA; (C) Hawai’i, USA; (D) Suruga and Sagami Bays, Japan; and (E) New Zealand. The heatmap represents the number of dive activities per 250 km2, not the area observed. The actual area observed on the seabed is too small to represent on a map at this scale. Map source data: GEBCO bathymetry (47) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), rendered in ArcGIS software. -- Science

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Planet Exploration: A Visual Coverage Estimate Of Earth’s Deep Seafloor

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2025May 27, 2025

Despite the importance of visual observation in the ocean, we have imaged a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor.

The new bathymetric map of the volcanic chain south-southeast of Rarotonga Note the data is shown here before processing, which will improve the quality further. -- Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority

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Water Planet Surveys: Discovering Underwater Volcanoes

by Keith CowingMarch 30, 2025March 30, 2025

The Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA), in collaboration with other partners such as the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), University of California Santa Barbara, and Kiva Marine, recently […]

High-resolution seismic image of the subsurface beneath seafloor craters (A) Seismic line crossing the field of craters in a SW-NE direction as shown Fig. 2E. Circle insets show details of the reflective polarity of the main bottom simulating reflectors (BSRs) identified at regional scale in the study area. BSR-1 is characterized by a reverse polarity with respect to the seafloor polarity whereas BSR-2 has the same polarity as the seafloor. Both are breached and collapsed by fluid escape pipes beneath the crater fields A and B. (B) Detail of subsurface beneath the craters showing a fluid escape pipe breaching the two BSRs. HAR: High Amplitude Reflector within the pipes. -- Science Reports via PubMed

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Giant Pit Craters On The Seafloor Above Magma-induced Hydrothermal Vent Complexes

by Keith CowingFebruary 3, 2025February 2, 2025

Massive injection of 13C depleted carbon to the ocean and atmosphere coincided with major environmental upheaval multiple times in the geological record. For several events, the source of carbon has […]

MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

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Ocean World Dynamics: Deep Sea Weather

by Keith CowingAugust 2, 2024August 2, 2024

The seafloor is the final destination for all sorts of particles, like sand, mud, organic carbon that provides food for seafloor organisms, and even pollutants.

Guaymas Basin Hydrothermal hot spot with white sulfur-oxidizing mats at Marker 14 where sediment cores 4570-LC1 and LC2 were collected, the sources for thermophilic ANME-1 enrichments (Holler et al., 2011) and for Ca. Syntrophoarchaeum (Laso-Pérez et al., 2016). -- Science Direct

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The Guaymas Basin – A Hot Spot For Hydrothermal Generation And Anaerobic Microbial Degradation Of Hydrocarbons

by Keith CowingJuly 18, 2024July 7, 2024

Guaymas Basin is a young marginal rift basin in the Gulf of California characterized by active seafloor spreading, rapid deposition of organic-rich sediments, and steep geothermal gradients where sedimentary organic […]

Trajectories along the Eiffel Tower hydrothermal vent. Camera poses were retrieved using COLMAP (Schonberger ¨ and Frahm 2016). 3D model was meshed and textured using OpenMVS (Cernea 2020). -- cs.CV

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Away Team Deep-Sea Datasets: Long-Term Visual Localization Of The Eiffel Tower Hydrothermal Vent

by Keith CowingJuly 10, 2024July 7, 2024

Visual localization plays an important role in the positioning and navigation of robotics systems within previously visited environments.

Dimensions and close-ups of the boulder, highlighting where life is clearly visible -- Frontiers in Marine Science

Arctic / Antarctic / Alpine, Away Teams & Field Reports, Cryobiology, Exploration Gear & Tech, Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, ROVs/Submersibles/Diving, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice ShelfFrontiers in Marine Science

by Keith CowingJune 17, 2024June 17, 2024

The seafloor beneath floating ice shelves accounts roughly a third of the Antarctic’s 5 million km2 of continental shelf.

bathymetry

Newly Discovered Hydrothermal Fields Off The Island Of Milos

Planetary Analog Sites In The Indian Subcontinent And The Indian Ocean: Underexplored Environments Suited For Astrobiological And Space Research

Ocean Planet Expedition: Robots Map Unexplored Depths

Water Planet Exploration: A Visual Coverage Estimate Of Earth’s Deep Seafloor

Water Planet Surveys: Discovering Underwater Volcanoes

Giant Pit Craters On The Seafloor Above Magma-induced Hydrothermal Vent Complexes

Ocean World Dynamics: Deep Sea Weather

The Guaymas Basin – A Hot Spot For Hydrothermal Generation And Anaerobic Microbial Degradation Of Hydrocarbons

Away Team Deep-Sea Datasets: Long-Term Visual Localization Of The Eiffel Tower Hydrothermal Vent

The First Recorded Hard Substrate Sessile Benthic Community Far Beneath an Antarctic Ice ShelfFrontiers in Marine Science

Training For Astrobiology Spelunking On Mars

Mars Perseverance Rover’s Panoramic View of Broom Point

Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star Seem To Be Small, Strange, And Utterly Uninhabitable

Experimental Astrochemistry And Machine Learning Unravel The Formation Of Oxygen-bearing Organic Molecules In Extraterrestrial Ices

Bacteria Form Herds To Survive Predators, Offering Fresh Insight Into Earth’s Carbon Cycle