Data feast

THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in the us is elated at
unveiling the first scientifically satisfying map of the ocean floor. The map
unveils 71 per cent of the earth that lies
beneath the oceans, but was until now
not as well mapped as the surface of
Venus. Among those rushing for a
glimpse of the map are fishermen who
want to zero in on undersea mountains
that produce upwellings of deep, nutrient-rich water that feed swarms of fish,
industry too hopes to get a bird's-eye
view of rocks that Overlay oil fields and
the kinds of volcanic eruptions that
form undersea deposits of copper, iron,
silver and gold. "It's like being able to
drain the oceans and look at the earth
from space," says David T Sandwell, a
geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in La Jolla, California,
who helped make the map. "We're having a data feast. It really is a time for
celebration," he adds.