Unbelievable map of Earth without oceans shocks experts

The first digital map of the Earth's sea floor confirms what we previously knew could be wrong with the planet, as it reveals Earth's basins are more complex. With the last completed map drawn by hand in the 1970's, the new one offers more details that can be utilized for further understanding climate change and other marine processes. As it turns out, Australasia underneath water is different than the initial findings.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Collating about 15,000 samples from research ships, the study, pioneered by the University of Sydney's School of Geosciences, presented a detailed impression of our planet if it was stripped of water, according to The Daily Mail.

Researchers explain that the map shows that the sea floor is "covered with complex patchwork of microfossil remains" and not really in clay. The study contributed towards a better understanding of the larger part of the Earth and how climate change has affected it.

"The deep ocean floor is a graveyard with much of it made up of the remains of microscopic sea creatures called phytoplankton, which thrive in sunlit surface waters. The composition of these remains can help decipher how oceans have responded in the past to climate change... We urgently need to understand how the ocean responds to climate change," explained Dr. Adriana Dutkiewicz, lead researcher who teamed up with big data experts from the National ICT Australia (NICTA). They used algorithms in order to complete the interactive map.

Dr. Dutkiewicz added that this development will help marine researchers, while others speculate it would be tapped useful on oil exploration.

It turns out that Australasia, the key focus of the study, has an ocean floor that is "complex, deep and covered in microfossil remains," disproving earlier data about the region.

The map was published in the latest edition of Geology.

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