SeaFloor
Latest
Missing Malaysia Airlines flight search yields valuable seafloor data
In 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 disappeared from radar and a massive search for the missing aircraft ensued. For two years, scientists used sonar to map the seafloor where the plane was thought to have crashed, and then search for any remnants. Nothing was found and the search was officially called off this past January, but the data collected during the search has now been released.
Xprize offers $7 million for exploring the ocean floor
After years of focusing on moonshots and other lofty goals, the Xprize Foundation now hopes to inspire innovation in the opposite direction... in a very literal sense. Its new Shell Ocean Discovery Xprize is offering a total of $7 million in awards to teams that can deliver robotic exploration of sea floors as deep as 4,000m (13,123ft). The $4 million grand prize and a $1 million runner-up prize will go to the groups that deliver the sharpest maps on top of meeting baseline requirements for autonomy, depth and speed. The top 10 teams will split a $1 million milestone prize, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is chipping in another $1 million for teams that spot objects through biological and chemical clues.
ICYMI: Surprise volcanoes, jetpacks and new Nike shoes
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-821419{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-821419, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-821419{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-821419").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: Marine biologists in Australia discovered an enormous, 12-mile long chain of (happily extinct) volcanoes under the sea that no one knew about. Controlling a jetpack is looking easier and easier, and I don't care if flight only lasts 30 seconds y'all, this stuff is happening! And Nike unveiled a new line of shoes for people with disabilities and it's the best use case for a non-gym basketball shoe that we've ever seen. Good job guys.
DepthX robotic submarine maps world's deepest sinkhole
After the recent streak of robotic failures that we've seen, it's refreshing to see yet another success story come our way. Just as it did in February, the two-meter wide DepthX (Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer) robotic submarine successfully mapped out a massive sinkhole in Mexico, but this time was quite a bit more rewarding. The cavern that it ventured into was the El Zacatón Cenote, which is better known as the world's deepest water-filled sinkhole, and the machine was able to delve some 270-meters down to "create the first map of the giant cavity." The hole itself is large enough to "swallow New York's Chrysler Building," and while the endeavor was indeed a success, researchers are hoping to get it back down there in the near future to better analyze a mysterious slope that it wasn't quite able to probe. Godspeed, DepthX.[Via Slashdot]
