Equipped with a multibeam sonar along its hull, the vessel not only mapped the sea floor along a swath off the coast of North Carolina to Massachusetts, but also recorded reflections in the water column.
From 1921, the International Hydrographic Organization in Monaco has standardized surveying and charting of the sea and, from 1924, the Discovery Investigations studied whales and mapped the seas around Antarctica.
The search has moved into a new phase, with a Chinese navy survey ship to start mapping the seabed off the west Australian coast.
Officials confirmed on Monday morning that a Chinese navy survey ship will start mapping the seabed off the west Australian coast this week as part of the latest phase in the search for the Malaysian airliner.
While the primary science will be conducted using instruments that map the sea floor from above, the team must also take baseline measurements in the ocean to validate the data they get from the air, Gierach said.
The Nautilus Exploration Program discovered a mysterious purple orb while mapping the sea floor near the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California, Smithsonian Magazine reports.
Using specialist equipment to survey the ocean floor, teams searching for wreckage of the plane have been mapping the sea bed.
According to the Daily Mail, the Falkor was mapping the sea bed when scientists noticed an unusual bump measuring almost 190 feet long.
Two vessels, one Chinese and one from Dutch engineering company Fugro, are currently mapping the sea floor along the arc, where depths exceed 5,000 meters in parts.
In 2012 researchers mapping the sea floor in the area discovered a large slab of collapsing sea floor called the Noggin Block that they theorised could trigger a tsunami in the future.
