{"id":684662,"date":"2024-07-18T06:05:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T13:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&p=684662"},"modified":"2024-07-18T07:25:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-18T14:25:37","slug":"mapping-the-deep-excerpt","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt","title":{"rendered":"Why We Map the Deep (and Why You Should Care)"},"author":671,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1291,25182,271,1471,138062],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478392],"esri_blog_department":[478172],"class_list":["post-684662","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esri-insider","tag-conservation","tag-esri-press","tag-mapping","tag-ocean","tag-science","esri-blog-category-ocean","esri_blog_department-mapping"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"The book, Mapping the Deep, demonstrates the value of ocean mapping to better understand our world and safeguard it from harm.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

The following is an excerpt from a new book from Esri Press.<\/h2>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":684682,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" \r\n\r\n\u201cDo you like to breathe?\u201d This is what distinguished oceanographer and my longtime mentor Sylvia Earle (\u201cHer Deepness\u201d) sometimes asks skeptics who wonder why we study the deep. After all, they say, there\u2019s nothing down there\u2014just some sand and rocks, right? Let\u2019s go to Mars instead!\r\n\r\nNo, Earle patiently explains: If the ocean and its organisms weren\u2019t in good health, we humans wouldn\u2019t be either. For starters, about 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe comes from organisms in the ocean. Marine photosynthesizers, such as seaweed and phytoplankton, use carbon dioxide, water, and energy from the sun to make food for themselves. In the process, they release oxygen into the atmosphere. If they weren\u2019t doing this, we wouldn\u2019t be breathing.\r\n\r\nThis cycle takes time. Most of the oxygen produced by the ocean is directly consumed by the microbes and creatures that live there, or consumed when organic matter falls to the seafloor. So about half the oxygen we breathe now comes from the slow accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere over millions of years.\r\n\r\nAs well as providing us and other species with essential oxygen, the ocean plays a critical role in regulating the planet\u2019s climate. It also buffers our excess carbon (so far, anyway), absorbs surplus heat (so far), produces a wealth of resources, feeds millions of people, and keeps the global economy afloat. At the same time, it can unleash destructive forces\u2014as we\u2019ve seen, most earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis originate in the deep.\r\n\r\nOcean waters cover 70 percent of our planet, but if we don\u2019t fully understand how the ocean works, we can\u2019t protect it (or ourselves). And if we can\u2019t protect it, all species on Earth, including our own, are at risk. Sylvia Earle has sounded the alarm: \u201cWe need to act now,\u201d she warns, \u201cbecause if there\u2019s no blue, there\u2019s no green, which means there will eventually be no humans. No kidding!\u201d\r\n\r\nThat\u2019s why scientists like Cassie Bongiovanni, Kathy Sullivan, Nicole Yamase, and Sylvia Earle have dedicated their lives to exploring the ocean, studying its biology and geology, and mapping its depths. It\u2019s what motivates me.\r\n\r\nInstead of the flat blue surface of earlier maps, or imaginary monsters of the deep, today\u2019s maps show us the hidden face of our planet: a topography scarred and riven by its formation; a dramatic terrain of volcanoes, trenches, and fracture zones; a hotbed of geologic activity. This geologic activity is the most exciting, the most perplexing, and the most important to study."},{"acf_fc_layout":"gallery","gallery_images":[684702,684722,684712]},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Transformation and Destruction<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nFor starters, what happens in the ocean doesn\u2019t stay in the ocean. We now know that the planet\u2019s surface is made up of tectonic plates, major and minor, that ride on top of Earth\u2019s mantle\u2014essentially a layer of hot roiling rock.\r\n\r\nThe plates fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, but, because the mantle is moving, they don\u2019t stay put: They\u2019re constantly shifting, sliding, and grinding into one another. The seams between them, where they collide or push apart, are known as faults. Just like on land, where a sudden slip along a fault can cause an earthquake, undersea faults are hot spots of geologic activity, generating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on the Earth above. But high-resolution seabed maps can help scientists predict catastrophic events like these before they happen.\r\n\r\nAlso, tsunamis come about as a result of a movement on the floor of the ocean that\u2019s expressed in a fault. When you have that disruption on the ocean floor, the water above the ocean floor gets severely disrupted as well, and generates these large, long-wavelength waves that are essentially the tsunamis. That\u2019s why we need to monitor those fault zones, but even more importantly, we need to understand the shape of the seafloor in coastal areas where tsunamis occur. Though a tsunami is a terrifying mass of water, how it behaves and how fast it travels is influenced by what\u2019s below: the shape of the coastline and topography of the ocean floor.\r\n\r\nAccording to NOAA, tsunamis \u201chave killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and caused billions of dollars in damage. They are equal opportunity destroyers: no coastal area in the world is entirely safe from them.\u201d But if we have better maps and, hence, better models, we can more accurately predict the impact of tsunamis and\u2014ideally\u2014save lives through more effective warnings (when, how, and where to evacuate).\r\n\r\nAnother very, very important reason to map the ocean floor is that we\u2019re looking more to the ocean now for energy\u2014wave energy, for instance, or wind energy. And we are siting wind turbines on the ocean floor.\r\n\r\nSo we need to know what the ocean floor looks like\u2014which areas are flat, for instance, and what is the composition of those areas. Is it sandy? Is it silty? Is it rocky? What are the best places for us to anchor that type of alternative energy infrastructure?\r\n\r\nSiting wind turbines involves a host of other considerations, notes Dr. Richard Spinrad, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among those is ensuring that the turbines won\u2019t harm endangered marine species, such as the North Atlantic right whale. With the right geospatial data, Spinrad says, we can begin to answer crucial questions, such as \u201cHow do we ensure that while building out this renewable energy source we are also preserving the right whale? How are we going to know that the wind will be there in 30 years?\u201d Accurate maps and spatial models can guide scientists to make the best decisions for our energy needs as well as for the ocean ecosystem.\r\n\r\nAlso, as offshore renewable energy becomes increasingly important in the race to replace fossil fuels, new questions arise about access and rights to areas of the ocean. For both economic activity and conservation efforts to succeed, we need well-defined ocean territories. Who will reap the benefits from that part of the ocean? Who will take care of it? Who will protect it from overexploitation?\r\n\r\nThe first step toward responsibly managing any area of the ocean is defining it by mapping it.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nVisit MappingtheDeep.com<\/a> for more details about the book and my life. Learn how GIS technology is used to explore, map, visualize, analyze, and protect the oceans.<\/a>"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nWhy We Map the Deep (and Why You Should Care)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The book, Mapping the Deep, demonstrates the value of ocean mapping to better understand our world and safeguard it from harm.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why We Map the Deep (and Why You Should Care)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The book, Mapping the Deep, demonstrates the value of ocean mapping to better understand our world and safeguard it from harm.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Esri\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-18T14:25:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Mapping-the-Deep-challenger-3D_826.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Esri\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\n\t \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n\t \"@graph\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebPage\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt\",\n\t \"name\": \"Why We Map the Deep (and Why You Should Care)\",\n\t \"isPartOf\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\"\n\t },\n\t \"datePublished\": \"2024-07-18T13:05:54+00:00\",\n\t \"dateModified\": \"2024-07-18T14:25:37+00:00\",\n\t \"description\": \"The book, Mapping the Deep, demonstrates the value of ocean mapping to better understand our world and safeguard it from harm.\",\n\t \"breadcrumb\": {\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt#breadcrumb\"\n\t },\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ReadAction\",\n\t \"target\": [\n\t \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt\"\n\t ]\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/mapping-the-deep-excerpt#breadcrumb\",\n\t \"itemListElement\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 1,\n\t \"name\": \"Home\",\n\t \"item\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"ListItem\",\n\t \"position\": 2,\n\t \"name\": \"Why We Map the Deep (and Why You Should Care)\"\n\t }\n\t ]\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"WebSite\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#website\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/\",\n\t \"name\": \"Esri\",\n\t \"description\": \"Esri Newsroom\",\n\t \"potentialAction\": [\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"SearchAction\",\n\t \"target\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"EntryPoint\",\n\t \"urlTemplate\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"\n\t },\n\t \"query-input\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"PropertyValueSpecification\",\n\t \"valueRequired\": true,\n\t \"valueName\": \"search_term_string\"\n\t }\n\t }\n\t ],\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\"\n\t },\n\t {\n\t \"@type\": \"Person\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/8ad23580b2658589de4ea5107d75cb52\",\n\t \"name\": \"Matt Ball\",\n\t \"image\": {\n\t \"@type\": \"ImageObject\",\n\t \"inLanguage\": \"en-US\",\n\t \"@id\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\n\t \"url\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Author-photo-2024-768x768.jpg\",\n\t \"contentUrl\": \"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/app\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Author-photo-2024-768x768.jpg\",\n\t \"caption\": \"Matt Ball\"\n\t },\n\t \"description\": \"Matt Ball is the editor of the Esri Blog and writes about applications of geospatial technology for all its departments. 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