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Hydrographic surveyors (as people who map the ocean floor are called) typically utilize sonar systems to measure water depths. The simplest form is a single beam echosounder mounted on the underside of a boat floating on the surface. Like a flashlight that illuminates a small area in the direction it is pointed, a single beam sonar is pointed down and ensonifies a small area on the seafloor beneath it. The echosounder emits a pulse of acoustic energy into the water. This energy will travel down through the water; when it hits the seafloor (or anything else in the water column) some of the energy will be reflected back towards the echosounder. The speed of sound in water varies based on temperature, salinity and pressure, but is usually in the neighborhood of 1500 meters per second. By measuring the amount of time it takes for the acoustic energy to make its round-trip journey, and multiplying it by the speed of sound in water, we are able to calculate the depth.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoThey pay the divers to go to the end of the ocean and measure the ocean floor depth
before divers dive they take a long endless string keep it up the surface then take it al the way down and cut to where it ends so that when they are finished they measure
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoHess started it during WWII and continued afterward.
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Why do scientists use sonar?
to calculate the depth of the ocean floor
How do scientists use sound out to figure out the depth of the ocean?
They use an Echo Sounder. Many pulses of sound per second are sent to the ocean floor & the time it takes to rebound is measured and therefore the depth is calculated.
How do scientists use sound to figure out the depth of the ocean?
They use an Echo Sounder. Many pulses of sound per second are sent to the ocean floor & the time it takes to rebound is measured and therefore the depth is calculated.
What is depth as it is relating to the ocean?
Depth is a measure of distance between the surface and the ocean floor.
What do scientists use to measure ocean depth?
SONAR
Where is ocean floor at the greatest water depth?
the middle, between the ocean
What is the general depth of an ocean trench compared to the ocean floor?
True
Why do scientists look to the ocean floor to research the mantle?
Why do scientists look to the ocean floor to research the mantle? Because magma from the mantle flows out of active volcanoes on the ocean floor. These underwater volcanoes have given scientists many clues about the composition of the mantle.
Oceanographers can use sonar to calculate the depth of the ocean floor because?
sound waves can penetrate the ocean floor.
What can scientists do with sonar technology?
To find out the ocean`s depth
What are the scientist who work on the ocean floor called?
Scientists who work on the ocean floor are called marine biologist
How do scientists make maps of the ocean floor?
Sonar
