First bathymetric map of the North Atlantic (Maury)
Primer mapa batimétrico del Atlántico Norte (Maury)
- Date
- 1853-1854 · confidence medium
- Place
- US Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C., United States
- Credited to
- Matthew Fontaine Maury and John Mercer Brooke
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
A map of the relief of the North Atlantic floor from deep-sea soundings using Brooke's sounding device, revealing a plateau between Ireland and Newfoundland suitable for laying a cable. It was the first cartographic glimpse of the ocean floor.
The soundings of the time have limited reliability (lines drifted); the map is the first, but it is not accurate cartography.
What it led to
- laying of the first transatlantic cable
- a boost for sounding campaigns such as the Challenger's