Mappers look to chart world’s ocean floor by 2030 | News Home | Reuters
▻https://af.reuters.com/article/africaTech/idAFL5N1SL6DV
• Some 93 percent of world’s oceans still uncharted
• To use data from underwater drones, merchant ships, fishing
• Ocean seen contributing $3 trln to world economy by 2030
LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - Using data collected from underwater drones, merchant ships, fishing boats and even explorers, a new scientific project aims to map the ocean floor by 2030 and solve one of the world’s enduring mysteries.
With 190 million square km (73 million square miles) of water - or about 93 percent of the world’s oceans with a depth of over 200 metres (650 feet) - yet to be charted, the initiative is ambitious.
Satinder Bindra, director of the #Seabed_2030 project, said the work can be completed within the period and will shed light on everything from tsunami wave patterns to pollution, fishing movements, shipping navigation and unknown mineral deposits.
“We know more about the surface of the Moon and Mars than our own backyard. This in the 21st century is something that we are working to correct,” Bindra told Reuters.