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Geoinformatics_05-2009
article only the first of these three times was a manned expedition, by jacques picard and don walsh in 1960. the only other descent to this depth was the japanese research robot kaiko in 1995. conclusion we know less about the ocean floor than we know about the remainder of the earth. in order to get better knowledge two things are needed. one is an awareness that we know as little as we do and publicity helps in that. the other thing that needs to be done is to set aside a substantial amount of money to collect all the existing data and to collect as much new data as possible to finish a work that was started over a decade ago by prince albert i of monaco with the first version of gebco. atlantic ocean from the general bathymetric chart of the oceans (gebco source noaa) huibert-jan lekkerkerk hlekkerkerk@geoinformatics.com is project manager at idsw and a freelance writer and trainer. this article reflects his personal opinion. does it need attention? based on the facts presented above the answer could go two ways. on the one hand, nothing special has happened over the last few decades. progress has been slow and has not significantly sped up. on the other hand, if we want to make progress, then any (positive) attention is welcome. our knowledge of the geography of the moon (or for that matter mars) is now almost equal to or better than our knowledge of our own world. the lack of knowledge is not a matter of technology; there are multibeam echo sounding systems available that can measure ocean depth. the problem is one of time (and money). most survey vessels can only measure, at the most, at speeds of 15 knots (7.5 meters/second). the most advanced system can measure about 2 3 times the water depth and still obtain reasonable results. with an average depth of 3,900 meters that is about 75,000 square meters per second. or about 6,480 square kilometers per day. the only problem is that the total surface to be surveyed is approximately 70% x 4 x 3.1428 x 6380 x 6380 kilometers = 512 million square kilometers or 216 years of full continuous surveying! even if i ve grossly overestimated the parameters it would still take decades to fully survey the ocean floor using the current techniques. and left image courtesy of schott. right image courtesy of thruvision. innovation at work gain visibility for your groundbreaking work at two co-located european meetings that are showcasing the latest work in security, defence, and remote sensing. these international forums will address the challenges that continue to emerge as these technology areas continue to evolve. the co-location of these two events enables participants to collaborate on topics of mutual interest. meet with colleagues and potential new partners in industry, academia, and government from around the world. in the new economic landscape your research is more important than ever in advancing developments in security and defence-related optronics, photonics, and remotesensing technologies. conferences: 31 august 3 september 2009 exhibition: 1 2 september 2009 bcc berliner congress centre berlin, germany spie.org/ers spie.org/esd latest news? visit www.geoinformatics.com 49 july/august 2009
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