Detailed MH370 search area maps released

MH370 Search A Rich Source Of Undersea Data
Detailed MH370 search area maps released
Author

19 July, 2017

Australians release bathymetric data from the first phase of the search.

Detailed sea-floor maps made during the unsuccessful search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, released by Australia on Wednesday, could help increase the knowledge of rich fisheries and the prehistoric movement of the earth's southern continents.

"From a fishing perspective it would be valuable information - they've found whale bones and cables and a drum, it is incredible the resolution", he said, referring to the data.

The Indian Ocean search ended in January after covering a lonely stretch of open water where under-sea mountains larger than Mount Everest rise and a rift valley dotted with subsea volcanoes runs for hundreds of kilometres.

The data - packaged in maps at least 15 times higher resolution than what was previously available - was collected for the sole goal of locating the aircraft but will be invaluable to the scientific community. The agency has also made the data availablefrom Australia's National Computational Infrastructure or in an S3 bucket GA describes as residing at "s3://mh370.phase1.data".

Investigators believe someone may have deliberately switched off MH370's transponder before diverting it thousands of miles off course, out over the Indian Ocean.

MH370 disappeared from the radars on 8 March 2014, around 40 minutes after taking off from Kuala Lumpur and enroute to Beijing, when someone turned off the communication systems and changed the plane's route, according to the official investigation.

The $150 million search, which the governments of China and Malaysia agreed Australia would lead, took almost three years before finally being suspended in January until credible new evidence was presented.

Geoscience Australia was involved in the Australian Transport Safety Bureau-led search because of its expertise in marine mapping. These aimed to allow the second phase, a more detailed underwater search using towed and autonomous underwater vehicles, to safely negotiate obstacles.

Between 10 and 15 percent of the seabed was analysed with this technology, said Stuart Minchin, Chief of Geoscience Australia's environmental geoscience division. He said the data is unique owing to the remote location of the area examined.

Dr Minchin said the data would contribute to a greater understanding of the geology of the deep ocean and the complex processes occurring there.

"It will be important for a range of future scientific research, including oceanographic and habitat modelling".

Authorities always meant to release the data and it was done so with the support of the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian Governments.


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