stackyFACTS
Science

How submarine sonar helped reveal seafloor spreading

HERE’S THE INTERESTING PART

Harry Hess wasn't just hunting U-boats during WWII; he left his ship's sonar running and accidentally mapped flat-topped underwater mountains called guyots. This casual side quest led him to realize the seafloor was actively spreading from mid-ocean ridges. He literally cracked the mystery of plate tectonics and continental drift just because he forgot to turn off the pinging machine.

From the Stacky collection1 min read
How submarine sonar helped reveal seafloor spreading
STACKY / Science
Topics in this factgeologyplate tectonicsoceanography
One discovery leads to another.

Keep exploring facts in this topic.

Science →
STACKY FOR IPHONE

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.

Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.

Download on the App Store
ONE MORE DISCOVERY?

Keep exploring

All in this topic →
Why geologists sometimes lick rocks
Science

Why geologists sometimes lick rocks

To the untrained eye, field researchers appear utterly insane, but pressing a dirty rock to your tongue is genuinely an official diagnostic technique for…

Discover more
Deep beneath the ocean surface, massive brine pools exist that are so incredibly saturated with salt they form distinct underwater lakes, complete with their own shorelines and…
Science

Deep beneath the ocean surface, massive brine pools exist that are so incredibly saturated with salt they form distinct underwater lakes, complete with their own shorelines and…

Deep beneath the ocean surface, massive brine pools exist that are so incredibly saturated with salt they form distinct underwater lakes, complete with their…

Discover more
Ground under your feet is slowly rafting you toward a future where continents will crash together again, raising new mountains over the buried bones of current cities.
Science

Ground under your feet is slowly rafting you toward a future where continents will crash together again, raising new mountains over the buried bones of current cities.

Ground under your feet is slowly rafting you toward a future where continents will crash together again, raising new mountains over the buried bones of…

Discover more
Yellowstone National Park is actually sitting on top of a dormant supervolcano that has erupted three times in the last two million years and has the capacity to plunge the…
Science

Yellowstone National Park is actually sitting on top of a dormant supervolcano that has erupted three times in the last two million years and has the capacity to plunge the…

Yellowstone National Park is actually sitting on top of a dormant supervolcano that has erupted three times in the last two million years and has the capacity…

Discover more
Your granite countertop is slightly radioactive
Science

Your granite countertop is slightly radioactive

Your ridiculously expensive kitchen countertop is silently radiating you. Granite inherently contains microscopic trace amounts of uranium and thorium trapped…

Discover more
Massive rivers flow beneath the ground
Science

Massive rivers flow beneath the ground

Surface rivers get all the glory, but the real action is entirely out of sight. Massive, undetected underground rivers flow constantly through highly porous…

Discover more
StackyMore discoveries in the app
Download on the App Store