GOOGLE Maps fans have been left baffled by mysterious lines in the ocean.
While these lines have raised eyebrows on Reddit, the areas without any lines are in fact much more of a mystery to humans.
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The dark lines in the ocean are where we have good sonar mapping of the ocean floor.
These are often found along well established shipping routes.
The rest of the ocean floor only has very low-resolution mapping.
It shows just how much of the ocean humans have yet to explore.
For all the lighter areas of the ocean where there aren’t lines, there are no high quality maps available for that part of the sea floor.
Although, some of the lines pictured are fracture lines.
These lines emerged when the oceanic crust formed at a mid-ocean ridge.
A fracture zone comes out of the ocean floor and are often hundreds, even thousands of kilometres long.
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As of 2020, just 19% of the Earth’s ocean floor has been mapped.
The other 81% of the oceans which is yet to be surveyed covers an area twice the size of Mars.
Better maps of the seafloor are needed for a host of reasons.
They are essential for navigation and for laying underwater cables and pipelines.
They are also important for fisheries in terms of management and conservation.
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