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Bathymetry (/ b ə ˈ θ ɪ m ə t r i /; from Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús) 'deep' and μέτρον (métron) 'measure') [1] [2] is the study of underwater depth of ocean floors (seabed topography), lake floors, or river floors. In other words, bathymetry is the underwater equivalent to hypsometry or topography.
Bathymetric charts showcase depth using a series of lines and points at equal intervals, called depth contours or isobaths (a type of contour line). A closed shape with increasingly smaller shapes inside of it can indicate an ocean trench or a seamount, or underwater mountain, depending on whether the depths increase or decrease going inward.
The process was labor-intensive and time-consuming and, although each individual depth measurement could be accurate, even a thorough survey as a practical matter could include only a limited number of sounding measurements relative to the area being surveyed, inevitably leaving gaps in coverage between soundings.
A sailor and a man on shore, both sounding the depth with a line. Depth sounding, often simply called sounding, is measuring the depth of a body of water.Data taken from soundings are used in bathymetry to make maps of the floor of a body of water, such as the seabed topography.
A depth gauge is an instrument for measuring depth below a vertical reference surface. They include depth gauges for underwater diving and similar applications. A diving depth gauge is a pressure gauge that displays the equivalent depth below the free surface in water. The relationship between depth and pressure is linear and accurate enough ...
The depth was determined (rather inaccurately) by the time it took to surface. [3] Jacob Perkins (1766–1849) proposed a bathometer based on the compressibility of water. [ 4 ] In this instrument the movement of a piston compressing a body of water enclosed in its cylinder is dependent on the pressure of the water outside the cylinder, and ...
Objectives of marine geophysics include determination of the depth and features of the seafloor, the seismic structure and earthquakes in the ocean basins, the mapping of gravity and magnetic anomalies over the basins and margins, the determination of heat flow through the seafloor, and electrical properties of the ocean crust and Earth's mantle.
GEBCO is the only intergovernmental body with a mandate to map the whole ocean floor. At the beginning of the project, only 6 per cent of the world's ocean bottom had been surveyed to today's standards; as of June 2022, the project had recorded 23.4 per cent mapped. About 14,500,000 square kilometres (5,600,000 sq mi) of new bathymetric data ...