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How a submarine hit an underwater mountain its chart didn't show

In 2005, the US submarine USS San Francisco crashed into an underwater mountain missing from its chart.

Satellites map the whole ocean floor, but only in blurry detail. Sharp maps come from ships that send sound down and time its echo: a quicker echo means shallower water. That takes time.

By 2022, less than a quarter of the seafloor had been mapped that sharply. The rest could still hide a mountain.

Source: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

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