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Indian Ocean
AUSTRALIA
Perth
Specific
search
areas
G
ene
ral
se
arc
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rea
INDON
ESIA
1,000 miles
MAP: ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER. SEAFLOOR RENDERINGS: GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA
January/February 2018^ DISCOVER^75

76

Lost Flight’s Legacy:

Stunning Seafloor Maps

❯

IN 2014, MALAYSIA AIRLINES

FLIGHT 370 disappeared en route

from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. A

massive, 34-month-long international

search effort found no signs of the

plane. But something positive still came

of it: Survey ships involved in the hunt

collected an enormous amount of data

about a 100,000-square-mile strip of the

southeastern Indian Ocean, and researchers

turned that information into high-

resolution seafloor imagery.

“Over 85 percent of our world’s oceans

have yet to be explored in such detail,” says

Geoscience Australia’s Kim Picard, whose

team processed the data. And the MH370

search region is particularly remote and

unexplored.

Picard says the seafloor maps, released

in July, may enable new discoveries about

plate tectonics, ocean currents and unique

sea life habitats. — ERIC BETZ

The massive search area for the missing MH370

flight covered a particularly remote region about

1,000 miles off the western Australian coast (above).

Tragically, the international hunt found no sign of

the lost aircraft. But data collected during the search

effort allowed researchers to map the ocean floor at

a much higher resolution than ever before, revealing

numerous features for the first time (right).

Depth

(in meters)

High: -3,500

Low: -4,800

Outline of

new image