scientist have add up up with many groundbreaking mode to search different parts of the Earth and beyond . Fromenormous infinite scope , to fancyLIDAR equipment , these technologies can instruct us more about the public ( and universe ) we experience in . Now , scientist have turned to the animal realm and recruited the assistant of somemarine mammalsto serve them learn more about unseen ocean depths and seascape in the Antarctic .
Byfixing devicesatop the heads of some very helpful southerly elephant sealskin ( Mirounga leonina ) and Weddell seals ( Leptonychotes weddellii),researchers have been capable to come upon more about a hard - to - attain country in Vincennes Bay in Antarctica . The cooperative pinnatiped have even reveal a huge secret canyon that is thought to be 2 kilometers ( 1.3 miles ) bass and has been named the Mirounga - Nuyina Canyon in honor of the Navy SEAL that discovered it .
“ Deep - diving event seals like Weddell and elephant sealskin offer us with a riches of data on the structure of the ocean trading floor , ” said Dr Clive McMahon , lead generator of the study , in astatement .
Discovering a new deep ocean canyon is all in a days work for this elephant seal.Image courtesy of Dr Clive R. McMahon - IMOS
In their paper , the team put forward that only 23 pct of the seafloor has been mapped accurately across the earth and even less is known about the rich weewee around Antarctica because of its remoteness , inaccessibility , and the vast swaths of chalk in the region . “ Given the remote and inhospitable nature of Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean , only a small part of the south-polar continental shelf was surveyed by ships in the past , so the info useable about this area is sparse , ” McMahon explained .
A total of 265 Southern elephant seal and Weddell seals were captured after the ecdysis and machine were fixed to each of the seal ' heads to facilitate roll up the data . The devices commemorate depth whenever the seal are in the water at a frequency of once every 4 seconds . They can also quantify temperature , and conductivity , helping scientists understand more about the East Antarctic continental ledge and the ocean process that are affect byclimate change .
The team combined data from over 500,000 individual seal dive on the East Antarctic continental shelf and compared them tobathymetryinformation about the depth of the water in different locations . Mismatches between the seal data and the bathymetry information can help scientist discover more about dissimilar depth and features in dissimilar regions of the ocean .
“ We found in some regions that more than 25 per centum of premature estimates of the sea depths were awry , ” said carbon monoxide - generator Professor Mark Hindell . In some character , the seals were diving more than 1,000 measure ( over 3,281 feet ) deeper than where the team retrieve theocean floorwas .
By comparing different information sets taken from seals , and from multi - beam sonar vessels like the RSVNuyina , the team can learn much more about the seafloor in these unlike hard - to - memory access areas . This in turn can inform data point about the melting of the meth sheet in the area and identify thinner while .
“ The observations we compile from the seals aid us well understand the shape of the ocean floor , especially where there are channels for warm water to get at ice shelf cavities , ” McMahon explained . “ This knowledge is indispensable for scientist trying to appraise ice sheet of paper melt rates . ”
The field is published inCommunications Earth & Environment .
