Abstract
To date, approximately 20% of the ocean floor has been surveyed by
ships at a spatial resolution of 400 m or better. The remaining 80% has
depth predicted from satellite altimeter-derived gravity measurements at
a relatively low resolution. There are many remote ocean areas in the
southern hemisphere that will not be completely mapped at 400 m
resolution during this decade. This study is focused on the development
of synthetic bathymetry to fill the gaps. There are two types of
seafloor features that are not typically well resolved by satellite
gravity: abyssal hills and small seamounts (< 2.5 km tall). We
generate synthetic realizations of abyssal hills by combining the
measured statistical properties of mapped abyssal hills with regional
geology including fossil spreading rate/orientation, rms height from
satellite gravity, and sediment thickness. With recent improvements in
accuracy and resolution, It is now possible to detect all seamounts
taller than about 800 m in satellite-derived gravity and their location
can be determined to an accuracy of better than 1 km. However, the width
of the gravity anomaly is much greater than the actual width of the
seamount so the seamount predicted from gravity will underestimate the
true seamount height and overestimate its base dimension. In this study
we use the amplitude of the vertical gravity gradient (VGG) to estimate
the mass of the seamount and then use their characteristic shape, based
on well surveyed seamounts, to replace the smooth predicted seamount
with a seamount having a more realistic shape.