Could A New Big Wave Come from Underwater Mountains?

Mapping the ocean floor for numerous economic and environmental repercussions. Ships need to know if there are any hazards in their way. Cable-laying and mining operations have to know what’s going on down there, too. Scientists are also interested in what kind of geological formations and marine ecosystems exist in the depths. 

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography project, a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales, used radar altimetry during a full year of satellite observations. The SWOT satellite covered about 90% of the planet every 21 days, and the seafloor map it created was published in Science in December 2024.

“The SWOT satellite was a huge jump in our ability to map the seafloor,” David Sandwell, a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, told NASA. 

How big of a jump was this research? The satellite measured small “bumps” on the ocean’s surface caused by the subtle gravitational pull of the large seamounts below, and researchers used that data to predict the location of the underwater masses. According to their pencils, the number of mapped seamounts skyrocketed from 44,000 to nearly 100,000.  That's an estimated 56,000 previously hidden peaks, uncovered just like that.

So, is the next Cortes Bank still out there? Could another mountain range intercept swells and cause a titanic wave to break on the ocean’s surface? Unfortunately, it’s too soon to tell. This data is preliminary, and the SWOT team is still calculating the depths of each feature the satellite pinpointed. This is part of an international effort to map the entire ocean bottom by 2030. Previous research could only detect seamounts over 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) in height. The SWOT team can find features half that height. 

For reference, the Cortes range rises an estimated 4,000 feet from the ocean floor, and its tallest point (Bishop Rock) comes alarmingly close to the surface. It’s also in a prime position to cop the brunt of massive long-period Pacific Ocean power. It's entirely possible the newly mapped seamounts don't come close enough to the surface to cause swells to break. While the scientists crunch the numbers, best keep your eyes peeled.