New Google Ocean Maps Dive Down Deep June 8, 2011 Up Close and Personal With Landscapes of the Abyss The new 2011 Seafloor Tour will take you to interesting features found on the ocean floor, like the Mendocino Ridge, where the Juan de Fuca plate slides toward western North America. {CLICK TO PLAY} Starting today, armchair explorers will be able to view parts of the deep ocean floors in far greater detail than ever before, thanks to a new synthesis of seafloor topography released through Google Earth. Developed by oceanographers at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory from scientific data collected on research cruises, the new feature tightens resolution in covered areas from the former 1-kilometer grids to just 100 meters. The ocean floors contain dramatic landscapes--volcanic ridges, lofty peaks, wide plains and deep valleys—but most areas remain mapped in less detail than the surfaces of the Moon and Mars. The new...
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