Bonanza of Arctic Ocean data.The mere stroke of a pen last month dramatically boosted oceanographers' knowledge about the Arctic, seafloor. The U.S. Navy declassified de·clas·si·fy tr.v. de·clas·si·fied, de·clas·si·fy·ing, de·clas·si·fies To remove official security classification from (a document). de·clas formerly secret data collected by submarines between 1957 and 1982. Ever since naval submarines started prowling prowl v. prowled, prowl·ing, prowls v.tr. To roam through stealthily, as in search of prey or plunder: prowled the alleys of the city after dark. v.intr. the Arctic Ocean Arctic Ocean, the smallest ocean, c.5,400,000 sq mi (13,986,000 sq km), located entirely within the Arctic Circle and occupying the region around the North Pole. , they have been making measurements of the seafloor depth. Because ordinary ships cannot plow through to execute a difficult or laborious task steadily, esp. one containing many parts; as, he plowed through the stack of correspondence until all had been answered. See also: Plow the ice-covered central Arctic, civilian oceanographers have lacked detailed information about this region--one of the least-known parts of Earth's surface Noun 1. Earth's surface - the outermost level of the land or sea; "earthquakes originate far below the surface"; "three quarters of the Earth's surface is covered by water" surface . The Navy, the State Department, and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission collaborated to pull together the secret data and arrange for their release. "This is at least a factor of two, and maybe three or four, times more data for the central Arctic than what was available before," says the commission's Garrett W. Brass. The new information will aid researchers studying a broad array of questions, he says. Climate scientists, for instance, need to know the highs and lows of seafloor topography in order to chart the paths of deep currents of cold water that develop in the Arctic and then flow south into the Atlantic. |
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