The Sea Floor and Sonar

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For most of modern history, measuring the sea floor meant scientists going out at sea and then throwing out these lines with weights at the end. It wasn't until world war one that there was the development of sonar which allowed us to map the sea floor with sound. One of the first scientists who used the sonar to create detailed maps of the sea floor is marie thorpe. Marie died in two thousand six but she recorded a series of oral histories. She worked under a scientist named bruce hesen who would go out on ships at sea,. And he would collect sonar data of the seafloor.

Earlier this year, Nicole Yamase explored the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest place in the ocean, where few people have ever been. The rest of the seafloor is almost as mysterious — 80 percent remains unmapped — but the few glimpses scientists have gotten have completely revolutionized our understanding of the planet.

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