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Fracture zone

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A fracture zone is a linear feature on the ocean floor—often hundreds, even thousands of kilometers long—resulting from the action of offset mid-ocean ridge axis segments. They are a consequence of plate tectonics . Lithospheric plates on either side of an active transform fault move in opposite directions; here, strike-slip activity occurs. Fracture zones extend past the transform faults, away from the ridge axis; are usually seismically inactive (because both plate segments are moving in the same direction), although they can display evidence of transform fault activity, primarily in the different ages of the crust on opposite sides of the zone.

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75-399: In actual usage, many transform faults aligned with fracture zones are often loosely referred to as "fracture zones" although technically, they are not. They can be associated with other tectonic features and may be subducted or distorted by later tectonic activity. They are usually defined with bathymetric , gravity and magnetic studies. Mid-ocean ridges are divergent plate boundaries. As

150-543: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in

225-492: A three-dimensional representation of whatever the light pulses reflect off, giving an accurate representation of the surface characteristics. A LiDAR system usually consists of a laser , scanner, and GPS receiver. Airplanes and helicopters are the most commonly used platforms for acquiring LIDAR data over broad areas. One application of LiDAR is bathymetric LiDAR, which uses water-penetrating green light to also measure seafloor and riverbed elevations. ALB generally operates in

300-530: A contour target through both an active and passive system." What this means is that airborne laser bathymetry also uses light outside the visible spectrum to detect the curves in underwater landscape. LiDAR (light detection and ranging) is, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , "a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances". These light pulses, along with other data, generate

375-469: A fan-like swath of typically 90 to 170 degrees across. The tightly packed array of narrow individual beams provides very high angular resolution and accuracy. In general, a wide swath, which is depth dependent, allows a boat to map more seafloor in less time than a single-beam echosounder by making fewer passes. The beams update many times per second (typically 0.1–50 Hz depending on water depth), allowing faster boat speed while maintaining 100% coverage of

450-490: A great visual interpretation of coastal environments. The other method of satellite imaging, multi-spectral (MS) imaging, tends to divide the EM spectrum into a small number of bands, unlike its partner hyper-spectral sensors which can capture a much larger number of spectral bands. MS sensing is used more in the mapping of the seabed due to its fewer spectral bands with relatively larger bandwidths. The larger bandwidths allow for

525-477: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and

600-440: A larger spectral coverage, which is crucial in the visual detection of marine features and general spectral resolution of the images acquired. High-density airborne laser bathymetry (ALB) is a modern, highly technical, approach to the mapping the seafloor. First developed in the 1960s and 1970s, ALB is a "light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technique that uses visible, ultraviolet, and near infrared light to optically remote sense

675-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in

750-399: A one depth at a time procedure which required very low speed for accuracy. Greater depths could be measured using weighted wires deployed and recovered by powered winches. The wires had less drag and were less affected by current, did not stretch as much, and were strong enough to support their own weight to considerable depths. The winches allowed faster deployment and recovery, necessary when

825-550: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment

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900-431: A regular or irregular grid of points connected into a surface). Historically, selection of measurements was more common in hydrographic applications while DTM construction was used for engineering surveys, geology, flow modeling, etc. Since c.  2003 –2005, DTMs have become more accepted in hydrographic practice. Satellites are also used to measure bathymetry. Satellite radar maps deep-sea topography by detecting

975-608: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek . There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek

1050-428: 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. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes

1125-630: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c.  300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as

1200-558: A total of 350 km to the west. The section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the two fracture zones is seismically active. The flow of major North Atlantic currents is associated with this fracture zone which hosts a diverse deep water ecosystem. The Heirtzler Fracture Zone was approved by the Advisory Committee on Undersea Features in 1993. The Mendocino Fracture Zone extends for over 4,000 km off

1275-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and

1350-456: Is a combination of continuous remote imaging and spectroscopy producing a single set of data. Two examples of this kind of sensing are AVIRIS ( airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer ) and HYPERION. The application of HS sensors in regards to the imaging of the seafloor is the detection and monitoring of chlorophyll, phytoplankton, salinity, water quality, dissolved organic materials, and suspended sediments. However, this does not provide

1425-570: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of

1500-533: Is a photon-counting lidar that uses the return time of laser light pulses from the Earth's surface to calculate altitude of the surface. ICESat-2 measurements can be combined with ship-based sonar data to fill in gaps and improve precision of maps of shallow water. Mapping of continental shelf seafloor topography using remotely sensed data has applied a variety of methods to visualise the bottom topography. Early methods included hachure maps, and were generally based on

1575-505: Is a powerful tool for mapping shallow clear waters on continental shelves, and airborne laser bathymetry, using reflected light pulses, is also very effective in those conditions, and hyperspectral and multispectral satellite sensors can provide a nearly constant stream of benthic environmental information. Remote sensing techniques have been used to develop new ways of visualizing dynamic benthic environments from general geomorphological features to biological coverage. A bathymetric chart

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1650-429: Is a type of isarithmic map that depicts the submerged bathymetry and physiographic features of ocean and sea bottoms. Their primary purpose is to provide detailed depth contours of ocean topography as well as provide the size, shape and distribution of underwater features. Topographic maps display elevation above ground ( topography ) and are complementary to bathymetric charts. Bathymeric charts showcase depth using

1725-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected

1800-666: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to

1875-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in

1950-600: Is not a concern) may also use a digital terrain model and artificial illumination techniques to illustrate the depths being portrayed. The global bathymetry is sometimes combined with topography data to yield a global relief model . Paleobathymetry is the study of past underwater depths. Synonyms include seafloor mapping , seabed mapping , seafloor imaging and seabed imaging . Bathymetric measurements are conducted with various methods, from depth sounding , sonar and lidar techniques, to buoys and satellite altimetry . Various methods have advantages and disadvantages and

2025-450: Is the process of creating an image that combines the geometric qualities with the characteristics of photographs. The result of this process is an orthoimage , a scale image which includes corrections made for feature displacement such as building tilt. These corrections are made through the use of a mathematical equation, information on sensor calibration, and the application of digital elevation models. An orthoimage can be created through

2100-727: 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 . The first recorded evidence of water depth measurements are from Ancient Egypt over 3000 years ago. Bathymetric charts (not to be confused with hydrographic charts ), are typically produced to support safety of surface or sub-surface navigation, and usually show seafloor relief or terrain as contour lines (called depth contours or isobaths ) and selected depths ( soundings ), and typically also provide surface navigational information. Bathymetric maps (a more general term where navigational safety

2175-759: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect

2250-649: The Juan de Fuca Ridge and the Gorda Ridge . The dominating feature of the fracture zone is the 150 km long Blanco Ridge, which is a high-angle, right-lateral strike slip fault with some component of dip-slip faulting . The Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone consists of two fracture zones in the North Atlantic that extend for over 2000 km. These fracture zones displace the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

2325-812: The North Atlantic and South Atlantic oceans. The trench reaches 7,758 m deep, is 300 km long, and has a width of 19 km. The fracture zone offsets the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by more than 640 km. The Sovanco Fracture Zone is a dextral-slip transform fault running between the Juan de Fuca and Explorer Ridge in the North Pacific Ocean . The fracture zone is 125 km long and 15 km wide. Bathymetry Bathymetry ( / b ə ˈ θ ɪ m ə t r i / ; from Ancient Greek βαθύς ( bathús )  'deep' and μέτρον ( métron )  'measure')

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2400-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)

2475-499: The 1960s. NOAA obtained an unclassified commercial version in the late 1970s and established protocols and standards. Data acquired with multibeam sonar have vastly increased understanding of the seafloor. The U.S. Landsat satellites of the 1970s and later the European Sentinel satellites, have provided new ways to find bathymetric information, which can be derived from satellite images. These methods include making use of

2550-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):

2625-495: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from

2700-754: The Scanning Hydrographic Operational Airborne Lidar Survey (SHOALS) and the Laser Airborne Depth Sounder (LADS). SHOALS was first developed to help the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in bathymetric surveying by a company called Optech in the 1990s. SHOALS is done through the transmission of a laser, of wavelength between 530 and 532 nm, from a height of approximately 200 m at speed of 60 m/s on average. High resolution orthoimagery (HRO)

2775-463: The angle of each individual beam. The resulting sounding measurements are then processed either manually, semi-automatically or automatically (in limited circumstances) to produce a map of the area. As of 2010 a number of different outputs are generated, including a sub-set of the original measurements that satisfy some conditions (e.g., most representative likely soundings, shallowest in a region, etc.) or integrated digital terrain models (DTM) (e.g.,

2850-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has

2925-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in

3000-535: The cartographer's personal interpretation of limited available data. Acoustic mapping methods developed from military sonar images produced a more vivid picture of the seafloor. Further development of sonar based technology have allowed more detail and greater resolution, and ground penetrating techniques provide information on what lies below the bottom surface. Airborne and satellite data acquisition have made further advances possible in visualisation of underwater surfaces: high-resolution aerial photography and orthoimagery

3075-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West

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3150-568: The coast of California and separates the Pacific plate and Gorda plate . The bathymetric depths on the north side of the fracture zone are 800 to 1,200 m shallower than to the south, suggesting the seafloor north of the ridge to be younger. Geologic evidence backs this up, as rocks were found to be 23 to 27 million years younger north of the ridge than to the south. Also known as the Romanche Trench , this fracture zone separates

3225-483: The combination of a number of photos of the same target. The target is photographed from a number of different angles to allow for the perception of the true elevation and tilting of the object. This gives the viewer an accurate perception of the target area. High resolution orthoimagery is currently being used in the 'terrestrial mapping program', the aim of which is to 'produce high resolution topography data from Oregon to Mexico'. The orthoimagery will be used to provide

3300-405: The depths measured were of several kilometers. Wire drag surveys continued to be used until the 1990s due to reliability and accuracy. This procedure involved towing a cable by two boats, supported by floats and weighted to keep a constant depth The wire would snag on obstacles shallower than the cable depth. This was very useful for finding navigational hazards which could be missed by soundings, but

3375-615: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of

3450-431: The different depths to which different frequencies of light penetrate the water. When water is clear and the seafloor is sufficiently reflective, depth can be estimated by measuring the amount of reflectance observed by a satellite and then modeling how far the light should penetrate in the known conditions. The Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) on NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2)

3525-445: The form of a pulse of non-visible light being emitted from a low-flying aircraft and a receiver recording two reflections from the water. The first of which originates from the surface of the water, and the second from the seabed. This method has been used in a number of studies to map segments of the seafloor of various coastal areas. There are various LIDAR bathymetry systems that are commercially accessible. Two of these systems are

3600-673: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c.  1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c.  1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c.  800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c.  500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been

3675-561: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from

3750-476: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to

3825-411: The locality and tidal regime. Occupations or careers related to bathymetry include the study of oceans and rocks and minerals on the ocean floor, and the study of underwater earthquakes or volcanoes. The taking and analysis of bathymetric measurements is one of the core areas of modern hydrography , and a fundamental component in ensuring the safe transport of goods worldwide. Another form of mapping

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3900-474: The measurement of ocean depth through depth sounding . Early techniques used pre-measured heavy rope or cable lowered over a ship's side. This technique measures the depth only a singular point at a time, and is therefore inefficient. It is also subject to movements of the ship and currents moving the line out of true and therefore is not accurate. The data used to make bathymetric maps today typically comes from an echosounder ( sonar ) mounted beneath or over

3975-573: The natural system more than any physical driver. Marine topographies include coastal and oceanic landforms ranging from coastal estuaries and shorelines to continental shelves and coral reefs . Further out in the open ocean, they include underwater and deep sea features such as ocean rises and seamounts . The submerged surface has mountainous features, including a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system, as well as undersea volcanoes , oceanic trenches , submarine canyons , oceanic plateaus and abyssal plains . Originally, bathymetry involved

4050-454: The ocean. These shapes are obvious along coastlines, but they occur also in significant ways underwater. The effectiveness of marine habitats is partially defined by these shapes, including the way they interact with and shape ocean currents , and the way sunlight diminishes when these landforms occupy increasing depths. Tidal networks depend on the balance between sedimentary processes and hydrodynamics however, anthropogenic influences can impact

4125-404: The offset in the magnetic striping, one can then determine the rate of past plate motions. In a similar method, one can use the relative ages of the seafloor on either side of a fracture zone to determine the rate of past plate motions. By comparing how offset similarly aged seafloor is, one can determine how quickly the plate has moved. The Blanco Fracture Zone is a fracture zone running between

4200-508: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which

4275-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c.  1450 BC ) are in

4350-401: The photographic data for these regions. The earliest known depth measurements were made about 1800 BCE by Egyptians by probing with a pole. Later a weighted line was used, with depths marked off at intervals. This process was known as sounding. Both these methods were limited by being spot depths, taken at a point, and could easily miss significant variations in the immediate vicinity. Accuracy

4425-408: The plates on either side of an offset mid-ocean ridge move, a transform fault forms at the offset between the two ridges. Fracture zones and the transform faults that form them are separate but related features. Transform faults are plate boundaries, meaning that on either side of the fault is a different plate. In contrast, outside of the ridge-ridge transform fault, the crust on both sides belongs to

4500-417: The research of the world's oceans. The development of multibeam systems made it possible to obtain depth information across the width of the sonar swath, to higher resolutions, and with precise position and attitude data for the transducers, made it possible to get multiple high resolution soundings from a single pass. The US Naval Oceanographic Office developed a classified version of multibeam technology in

4575-407: The same plate, and there is no relative motion along the junction. The fracture zone is thus the junction between oceanic crustal regions of different ages. Because younger crust is generally higher due to increased thermal buoyancy , the fracture zone is characterized by an offset in elevation with an intervening canyon that may be topographically distinct for hundreds or thousands of kilometers on

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4650-616: The same role for ocean waterways. Coastal bathymetry data is available from NOAA's National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), which is now merged into National Centers for Environmental Information . Bathymetric data is usually referenced to tidal vertical datums . For deep-water bathymetry, this is typically Mean Sea Level (MSL), but most data used for nautical charting is referenced to Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW) in American surveys, and Lowest Astronomical Tide (LAT) in other countries. Many other datums are used in practice, depending on

4725-442: The sea floor started by using sound waves , contoured into isobaths and early bathymetric charts of shelf topography. These provided the first insight into seafloor morphology, though mistakes were made due to horizontal positional accuracy and imprecise depths. Sidescan sonar was developed in the 1950s to 1970s and could be used to create an image of the bottom, but the technology lacked the capacity for direct depth measurement across

4800-486: The sea floor. As many areas of the ocean floor, particularly the Atlantic Ocean, are currently inactive, it can be difficult to find past plate motion. However, by observing the fracture zones, one can determine both the direction and rate of past plate motion. This is found by observing the patterns of magnetic striping on the ocean floor (a result of the reversals of Earth's magnetic field over time). By measuring

4875-462: The seafloor is through the use of satellites. The satellites are equipped with hyper-spectral and multi-spectral sensors which are used to provide constant streams of images of coastal areas providing a more feasible method of visualising the bottom of the seabed. The data-sets produced by hyper-spectral (HS) sensors tend to range between 100 and 200 spectral bands of approximately 5–10 nm bandwidths. Hyper-spectral sensing, or imaging spectroscopy,

4950-449: The seafloor. Attitude sensors allow for the correction of the boat's roll and pitch on the ocean surface, and a gyrocompass provides accurate heading information to correct for vessel yaw . (Most modern MBES systems use an integrated motion-sensor and position system that measures yaw as well as the other dynamics and position.) A boat-mounted Global Positioning System (GPS) (or other Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) positions

5025-594: The side of a boat, "pinging" a beam of sound downward at the seafloor or from remote sensing LIDAR or LADAR systems. The amount of time it takes for the sound or light to travel through the water, bounce off the seafloor, and return to the sounder informs the equipment of the distance to the seafloor. LIDAR/LADAR surveys are usually conducted by airborne systems. Starting in the early 1930s, single-beam sounders were used to make bathymetry maps. Today, multibeam echosounders (MBES) are typically used, which use hundreds of very narrow adjacent beams (typically 256) arranged in

5100-401: The soundings with respect to the surface of the earth. Sound speed profiles (speed of sound in water as a function of depth) of the water column correct for refraction or "ray-bending" of the sound waves owing to non-uniform water column characteristics such as temperature, conductivity, and pressure. A computer system processes all the data, correcting for all of the above factors as well as for

5175-402: The specific method used depends upon the scale of the area under study, financial means, desired measurement accuracy, and additional variables. Despite modern computer-based research, the ocean seabed in many locations is less measured than the topography of Mars . Seabed topography (ocean topography or marine topography) refers to the shape of the land ( topography ) when it interfaces with

5250-565: The subtle variations in sea level caused by the gravitational pull of undersea mountains, ridges, and other masses. On average, sea level is higher over mountains and ridges than over abyssal plains and trenches. In the United States the United States Army Corps of Engineers performs or commissions most surveys of navigable inland waterways, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) performs

5325-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies

5400-423: The width of the scan. In 1957, Marie Tharp , working with Bruce Charles Heezen , created the first three-dimensional physiographic map of the world's ocean basins. Tharp's discovery was made at the perfect time. It was one of many discoveries that took place near the same time as the invention of the computer . Computers, with their ability to compute large quantities of data, have made research much easier, include

5475-480: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,

5550-460: Was also affected by water movement–current could swing the weight from the vertical and both depth and position would be affected. This was a laborious and time-consuming process and was strongly affected by weather and sea conditions. There were significant improvements with the voyage of HMS Challenger in the 1870s, when similar systems using wires and a winch were used for measuring much greater depths than previously possible, but this remained

5625-414: Was limited to relatively shallow depths. Single-beam echo sounders were used from the 1920s-1930s to measure the distance of the seafloor directly below a vessel at relatively close intervals along the line of travel. By running roughly parallel lines, data points could be collected at better resolution, but this method still left gaps between the data points, particularly between the lines. The mapping of

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