Google Ocean will have a basic layer that shows the depth of the sea floor and will act as a spatial framework for more data. Google has plans to have some areas of the map in high-resolution images.
Other data will be visible as overlying layers that show weather patterns, currents, temperatures, shipwrecks and coral reefs.
"Google will basically just provide the field and then everyone will come flocking to it," predicted Stephen P. Miller, head of the Geological Data Center at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "There will be peer pressure to encourage people to get their data out there."
Google is likely to use high-resolution grids from oceanographic institutions showing the depth of certain areas. The data from those grids, cover a small portion of the sea floor, are based on ships using mulitbeam sonar. The sonar helps to calculate the depth of the sea floor based on bumps and dips in the ocean's surface.
"We hope that one of the outcomes of Google Ocean will be an understanding of how much remains to be explored," said Miller of Scripps.
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