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New Maps Reveal California’s Sensational Seafloor Geography

“AN UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT to map the seafloor bordering California’s coastline has produced some of the most detailed, beautiful and useful maps of an underwater landscape ever made.No fewer than 18 state and federal agencies and institutions led by the US Geological Survey banded together to make these maps. A staggering amount of work went into the California Seafloor Mapping Program, and the results are impressive. “Nowhere else in the world are people pursuing comprehensive seafloor mapping at this scale,” said USGS geologist Sam Johnson, the agency’s lead scientist on the project. “It’s really unprecedented globally.” The maps could be important for studying things like navigation safety, coastal erosion and sea level rise, fisheries, and earthquake and tsunami hazards. The maps have already yielded a ton of new information for scientists, along with a few surprises. For example, in Bodega Bay, the San Andreas fault is actually located about 800 meters away from where it was thought to be.”