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Deep sea mystery: 99.999% of Earth's ocean floor still remains unexplored
We have explored towering mountain ranges, mapped deserts, and even sent robots to map volcanoes — but when it comes to the deep ocean, we're still in the dark. A new study has revealed just how little of the ocean floor we have actually seen with our own eyes.
A study published in Science Advances analysed data from 43,681 deep-sea dives conducted since 1958 and found that humans have visually examined a mere 0.001 per cent of the ocean beds. That's roughly the size of Rhode Island or one-tenth of Belgium.
The ocean's average depth, about 12,080 ft (3,682 m), makes it virtually inaccessible without advanced submersible technology. While around 26.1 per cent of the seafloor has been mapped as of June 2024, visual documentation remains exceptionally limited.
'This small and biased sample is problematic when attempting to characterise, understand, and manage a global ocean,' said Susan Poulton, a researcher at the Ocean Discovery League and co-author of the study, in an email to Gizmodo.
An unknown world await below
The unexplored seafloor holds immense potential for scientific discovery. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), an estimated two-thirds of the ocean's 700,000 to 1 million species (excluding microbes) have yet to be identified or described. The limited visual data leaves significant gaps in understanding marine biodiversity and how these ecosystems interact with the planet.
Nearly two-thirds of all visual observations have occurred within 200 nautical miles of just three countries: the United States, Japan, and New Zealand. Most of the dives have been carried out by institutions from these nations, along with France and Germany. This geographic skew limits the global picture of deep-sea ecosystems.
'Imagine trying to tell the story of critical environments like the African savanna or the Amazon rainforest using only satellite imagery and DNA samples without ever seeing what lived there,' Poulton said. 'It wouldn't paint a very complete picture.'
The research also highlights a focus on shallow waters — less than 6,562 ft (2,000 m) deep — despite the fact that most of the ocean floor lies beyond that depth. Regions such as canyons and escarpments are disproportionately studied, while vast expanses like abyssal plains and ridges receive little attention.
Deep ocean's crucial role in Earth's systems
According to the researchers, better understanding the deep ocean is vital. These regions influence climate patterns, oxygen generation, and even medical discoveries. Yet, humanity has barely begun to investigate them visually.
Some breakthroughs have come through commercial exploration. For instance, studies of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone — a site of potential deep-sea mining — has led to the identification of hundreds of new species and even novel oxygen-producing mechanisms.
Mining threatens unstudied ecosystems
The timing of the study coincides with US policy moves that could escalate threats to these fragile habitats. The US President Donald Trump administration's efforts to accelerate deep-sea mining have raised alarms among scientists. Recently, researchers discovered organisms living beneath the seafloor, expanding our understanding of where life can exist. Such lifeforms may be at risk before they are even formally identified.
Call for a global deep-sea exploration strategy
The authors emphasise that understanding Earth's largest biome will require broader participation. More countries, institutions, and technological innovations must be brought into the fold. Without a shift in approach, the researchers estimate it could take more than 100,000 years to visually explore the deep seafloor at the current pace.
They call for a 'fundamental change in how we explore and study the global deep ocean', according to a statement from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Until then, critical decisions about climate, biodiversity, and marine policy are being made based on a surprisingly narrow understanding of the ocean's depths. Expanding our reach into this mysterious realm could reshape our knowledge of the planet — and unlock scientific discoveries still waiting in the dark.
What is deep sea mining?
Deep sea mining is the process of extracting valuable minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and manganese from the ocean floor at depths greater than 200 m. These minerals are found in polymetallic nodules, sulfide deposits near hydrothermal vents, and cobalt-rich crusts on underwater mountains. Mining involves robotic vehicles that collect these resources, which are then transported to the surface for processing. Driven by rising demand for metals used in batteries and renewable energy, deep sea mining is seen as a potential solution to depleting land resources, but it raises significant environmental concerns.
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Together, the DNA seemed to indicate that the domestic cat's worldwide conquest began in the Fertile Crescent (perhaps on Cyprus some 7,000 years ago), then gained momentum during Classical Antiquity about 2,500 years ago, when the Egyptian cat successfully spread throughout the Old World along land and sea trade routes. This analysis seemed to confirm that while the Afro-Asiatic wildcat was the ultimate source of the domesticated cat, its evolution and spread wasn't simple: Though the North African/Southwest Asian F lybica was a source, both the Near Eastern and Egyptian F lybica populations also contributed to the domestic cat's gene pool at several points in history. New tech, better theory Since 2017, new technology and more data have modified, added detail and complicated this storyline. While earlier work relied on mitochondrial DNA analysis, researchers were able to analyse nuclear DNA for an updated theory in 2025. This higher-resolution analysis reveals the full genetic code of individual cat specimens, including not only the maternal, but also the paternal inherited DNA. It provides 'the actual ancestry,' Ottoni says. And this new data punched an unexpected hole in the previous theory of cat domestication. For one, domestication happened thousands of years later than thought, and then was probably not due to African farmers who traveled to Cyprus. 'Evolutionarily speaking, it's a very peculiar case,' Ottoni says of the discordance between the 2017 and 2025 DNA findings. The new data showed what scientists call 'mitonuclear discordance,' where analyses using mitochondrial DNA markers yield different conclusions than those using nuclear DNA markers. Surprisingly, samples that the researchers thought were F. lybica turned out to be those of the European wildcat. So, while wildcats were indeed taken to Cyprus, Ottoni explains, this might have been an isolated attempt of Neoolithic people to domesticate European wildcats, rather than wildcats brought from Africa. The evidence now suggests that European wildcat and African wildcat distribution probably overlapped in the past, perhaps due to climatic shifts or other natural causes. Because both species are interfertile, they sporadically bred, leading to a mixed population living in Turkey. According to the updated theory, domestic cats with a lybica genome only appeared in Europe about 2000 years ago, during Classical Antiquity, Ottoni says, but then adds, 'We can't say precisely when the domestication process that led to the cat dispersal started.' Perhaps, and more likely, domesticated cats did come first from Egypt, where cats were buried in the Hierakonpolis (the ancient Egyptian royal residence). But whatever the exact origin story, we do know that 'in evolutionary terms, [the domestic cat is] one of the most successful mammal species in the world,' Ottoni says. Domestic cats today are found on every continent except Antarctica. (They were introduced to sub-Antarctic Marion Island in 1949 to control mice, but were later eradicated due to negative impacts on native birds.) Researchers have also learned that the close genetic kinship shared by domesticated and wild felids species really matters: The widespread prevalence of F catus, and its capacity to interbreed with F lybica, is among the most serious threats to the Afro-Asiatic wildcat's survival. Big challenges Hybridisation with domestic cats is widespread across the Afro-Asiatic wildcat's range, though some studies, including Herbst's work, have shown that wildcat populations in South Africa at least, especially in protected areas, appear to remain genetically pure. However, according to the 2022 IUCN species assessment, there's insufficient information on the level of hybridisation with domestic cats in other parts of the range, and therefore, this threat should not be underestimated or ignored. As such, Herbst points to responsible pet ownership as key to Afro-Asiatic wildcat survival. That includes spaying by pet owners of their domestic cats that aren't being bred, and also community spaying of feral cats (especially in urban areas bordering protected areas where wildcats live). Education is important, too, she notes. Though spaying is an important conservation measure, spayed domestic cats can still seriously impact wildcat food sources. The IUCN assessment points out that feral domestic cats compete with wildcats for prey and space, and there is also a high potential for disease transmission between them. Other threats include the risk of roadkill and poisoning and conflicts with farmers and local people due to attacks on poultry by wildcats leading to retaliatory killings. Another serious threat, Ghoddousi says, is lack of information, causing scientists to underestimate the risk a species faces. Unfortunately, that is always the case when you don't have enough data, he says. You can't make a meaningful judgment about a species status if you simply do not know.
