The ocean floor has been mapped in much less detail than the surface of Mars.Credit: US Geological Survey/Scientific Photo Library The depths of the ocean are among the final frontiers of scientific exploration. Scientists have visually studied less than 0.001% of the seafloor, but oceanography is essential to understanding the climate, ecosystems, and processes deep
When tectonic plates move away from each other, lava can spill onto the sea floor along mid-ocean ridges.Credit: Doug Perrine/Nature Picture Library/SPL Geophysicists have captured, for the first time, the ocean floor in the act of separating at one of its seams. Using a set of more than 20 measuring stations placed in a 100-kilometer-long