MH370 search data unveils fishing hotspots, ancient geological movements

[webfact]

MH370 search data unveils fishing hotspots, ancient geological movements

By Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett

 

An undated supplied image from Geoscience Australia shows a computer generated three-dimensional view of the sea floor obtained from mapping data collected during the first phase of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)/Handout via REUTERS

 

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Detailed sea-floor maps made during the unsuccessful search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, released by Australia on Wednesday, could help increase the knowledge of rich fisheries and the prehistoric movement of the earth's southern continents.

 

The Indian Ocean search ended in January after covering a lonely stretch of open water where under-sea mountains larger than Mount Everest rise and a rift valley dotted with subsea volcanoes runs hundreds of kilometres long.

 

The whereabouts of the plane, which vanished in March 2014 en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board, remains one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries.

 

However, information gathered during painstaking surveys of some 120,000 sq km (46,000 sq miles) of the remote waters west of Australia should provide fishermen, oceanographers and geologists insight into the region in unprecedented detail, said Charitha Pattiaratchi, professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia.

 

"There are the locations of seamounts which will attract a lot of international deep sea fishermen to the area," Pattiaratchi told Reuters by phone.

 

High-priced fish such as tuna, toothfish, orange roughy, alfonsino and trevally are known to gather near the seamounts, where plankton swirl in the currents in the inhospitable waters.

 

Pattiaratchi said the location of seamounts would also help model the impact of tsunamis in the region, given undersea mountains help dissipate their destructive energy, and potentially change our understanding of the break-up of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana.

 

The data consists of three-dimensional models of undersea landforms as well as raw bathymetric survey information. It was published online by Geoscience Australia on Wednesday, with a further tranche due to be published next year.

 

"It is estimated that only 10 to 15 percent of the world's oceans have been surveyed with the kind of technology used in the search for MH370, making this remote part of the Indian Ocean among the most thoroughly mapped regions of the deep ocean on the planet," said Stuart Minchin, chief of Geoscience Australia's environmental geoscience division.

 

Australia has not ruled out resuming the search for the Boeing 777 airliner but has said that would depend on finding "credible new evidence" about the plane's whereabouts.

 

"No new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft and the underwater search remains suspended," Australian Transport Minister Darren Chester said in a statement on Wednesday.

 

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Jonathan Barrett; Editing by Paul Tait)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-19

[2008bangkok]

It still baffles me how a plane can just disappear without trace never to be found again or a single body, Its not so much the conspiracy theory (of which there are many) its just the sheer fact that nowadays with all our technological  advancements that we can lose a plane, brings absolute fear every time i fly.

[lonewolf99]

About a year after the plane vanished I watched on a Thai television channel (translated to me by my Thai GF) a documentary where they used details given to them by the Thai Air force of the last movements of the aircraft.

 

They clearly showed the track the plane had taken on Thai radar where it had gone above and below radar height detection 3 times heading North, before finally heading West.....yes West and out of Radar range. Not South.

There was also a report 2 weeks after the plane vanished from a woman on a yacht who arrived in Phuket, saying that she saw a large commercial plane flying low level heading West in the Andaman Sea.

I also recall fishermen in the Maldives reported they saw a aircraft flying low heading West.

 

So why did they look for it in South ? 

 

If it crashed west of the Maldives then this might explain ( I know ocean currents play a big part ) parts of the  plane washed up in East Africa and Madagascar.

 

But, looking in the wrong place, they now know where to exploit more ocean fish stocks. 

 

 

[wwest5829]

1 hour ago, 2008bangkok said:

It still baffles me how a plane can just disappear without trace never to be found again or a single body, Its not so much the conspiracy theory (of which there are many) its just the sheer fact that nowadays with all our technological  advancements that we can lose a plane, brings absolute fear every time i fly.

Humbling and balancing to realize we humans do not know nor control all in the universe around us.

[Ralf61]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

a computer generated three-dimensional view of the sea floor

Hm, well... So the geo-scientist community is behind this miracle. Without that, they could never ever stump up that enormous budget for ultrasonic-scanning this tremendous area of sea-floor...

[DoctorG]

At least some value has been gained for the dollars spent.

[impulse]

3 hours ago, 2008bangkok said:

with all our technological  advancements that we can lose a plane, brings absolute fear every time i fly.

 

I figure if I made it to the airport safely, I'm good.  Until I deplane and hop in a taxi to get to my final destination.

 

[williamgeorgeallen]

3 hours ago, 2008bangkok said:

It still baffles me how a plane can just disappear without trace never to be found again or a single body, Its not so much the conspiracy theory (of which there are many) its just the sheer fact that nowadays with all our technological  advancements that we can lose a plane, brings absolute fear every time i fly.

best theory is it was shot down over the disputed south china seas. mate is a pilot swears thats what happened.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

13 minutes ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

best theory is it was shot down over the disputed south china seas. mate is a pilot swears thats what happened.

Or what about the US Thai military excercise Gold that was on at the time in the the Gulf of Thailand? Remember the oil rig guy that reported he saw a plane in flames from a Vietnamese rig.

[williamgeorgeallen]

21 minutes ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

Or what about the US Thai military excercise Gold that was on at the time in the the Gulf of Thailand? Remember the oil rig guy that reported he saw a plane in flames from a Vietnamese rig.

had not heard that one. did it happen when cobra gold was on?

[Belzybob]

3 hours ago, lonewolf99 said:

given to them by the Thai Air force of the last movements of the aircraft.

 

I wouldn't rely on their reports of bowel movements, never mind unidentified aircraft.

[farcanell]

4 hours ago, lonewolf99 said:

About a year after the plane vanished I watched on a Thai television channel (translated to me by my Thai GF) a documentary where they used details given to them by the Thai Air force of the last movements of the aircraft.

 

They clearly showed the track the plane had taken on Thai radar where it had gone above and below radar height detection 3 times heading North, before finally heading West.....yes West and out of Radar range. Not South.

There was also a report 2 weeks after the plane vanished from a woman on a yacht who arrived in Phuket, saying that she saw a large commercial plane flying low level heading West in the Andaman Sea.

I also recall fishermen in the Maldives reported they saw a aircraft flying low heading West.

 

So why did they look for it in South ? 

 

If it crashed west of the Maldives then this might explain ( I know ocean currents play a big part ) parts of the  plane washed up in East Africa and Madagascar.

 

But, looking in the wrong place, they now know where to exploit more ocean fish stocks. 

 

 

Ummm.... Is not Madagascar and the reunion islands west south west of KL? (WSW being a far cry from south)

 

anyway.... with Australia having paid the lion share of the search costs, I do hope that they get the lions share of any fishing or mineral rights to these incidental finds, should they want them

[Happy Grumpy]

5 hours ago, 2008bangkok said:

It still baffles me how a plane can just disappear without trace never to be found again or a single body, Its not so much the conspiracy theory (of which there are many) its just the sheer fact that nowadays with all our technological  advancements that we can lose a plane,

 

Get yourself a ship and see how long it takes you to find an object measuring 5 meters x 50 meters at the bottom of the sea. 

[2008bangkok]

18 hours ago, Happy Grumpy said:

 

Get yourself a ship and see how long it takes you to find an object measuring 5 meters x 50 meters at the bottom of the sea. 

I said lose not find, shouldn't of vanished in the first place with all the tracking they got onboard.

[lonewolf99]

 

For clarification - when I said Heading West ...I mean heading in a Westerly direction from Thailand - Not KL - this aircraft was over Thailand when it started the strange up and down all over the place movements before it disappeared.

 

The ocean currents in the Indian Ocean rotate basically anti clockwise....so anything crashing west of the Maldives the wreckage would drift over to the east African coast and then down south...remember the maps shown are Mercator projections they are no use for real navigation of give the scale required.

 

 

[dabhand]

A new search about to get started. Looks very much like the perfect vessel to go forward with a new search.

https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21733399-swarm-submarine-drones-will-scour-depths-plane-fantastical-ship

 

Just hope that they are looking in the right place.............

 

 

[Oziex1]

My Theory, the Malaysians know what happened to it but aren't saying.

 

In the meantime they are paying millions to fund surveys of the sea floor.

[dabhand]

10 hours ago, Oziex1 said:

My Theory, the Malaysians know what happened to it but aren't saying.

 

In the meantime they are paying millions to fund surveys of the sea floor.

This new search is on a 'no find, no fee' basis, with Malaysia seemingly going it alone this time round. The contract has yet to be signed with Ocean Infinity of Houston who have leased the vessel from Swire Seabed, the owners. There seems also to be options to extend the search if the designated area reveals nothing.

 

But would be interesting to know the small print on the ownership of the survey data, both for the original search and this new one. That might be the long term upside expectation for the players in this saga, particularly if the new search draws a blank.