The Earth’s surface is 71% water but less than 20% of the ocean floor has been mapped, leaving most of the seabed a mystery. The length and depth of what we’re missing is inconceivable. Marine geologist Robin Beaman is working to change that. Using 3D-mapping technology and underwater robots, Beaman and a team of scientists at the Schmidt Ocean Institute in Australia are figuring out what lies beneath the surface. In 2020, they discovered a new detached coral reef for the first time in over a century off the Great Barrier Reef. At 500 metres in height, it’s taller than the Eiffel Tower. If something so big has gone undetected for so long, who knows what else is down there for us to find? Visit facebook.com/schmidtocean to keep up to date with livestreams and the discoveries of these cartographers. Footage by Schmidt Ocean Institute was used in the creation of this film.
Up Next in Season 2
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Ashley Emerson and Érika Pellegrino
Our rainforests are in crisis. To reverse the harmful effects of global heating and restore vitality to the planet and its people, we need to start listening. Health In Harmony, a global team of doctors, nurses, scientists, and agriculturalists, partners with rainforest experts - local communitie...
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Dr Kate Stafford
We can’t see all the ways that climate change affects life underwater, but we can listen for it. “All marine animals use sound as their primary sense,” Kate Stafford explains. As an oceanographer, Stafford has devoted her career to studying the impact of climate change on the Arctic’s creatures t...
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Tony Gilding
Orangutan means ‘person of the forest’ in Malay. These primates share a lot with humans - their DNA, traits, home, and now, a schooling system. A rise in deforestation in Borneo has resulted in many young orangutans being displaced, orphaned, and left without the knowledge required to navigate th...