A geological survey team from the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) has discovered an undersea mountain south of Pacitan Regency, East Java.
According to BIG marine chart coordinator Fajar Triada Mugiarto, the undersea mountain, also referred to as a seamount, is positioned on the underside of the ocean at a depth of 6,000 m and is 2,200 m high, indicating that the highest of the seamount is 3,800 m below sea level. on Monday (February 13).
According to Fajar, the newly discovered seamount is positioned between the executive borders of Central Java and East Java, about 260 kilometers south of Pacitan.
A crew from the Marine and Coastal Mapping Center (PKLP) surveyed the prolonged continental shelf (ECS) that extends through the Java, Bali and Nusa Tenggara regions.
In collaboration with the National Agency for Innovation and Research (BRIN), the study was conducted at sea on the KR Baruna Jaya III for 52 days between September and November 2022.
BRIN’s research vessel was used to gather bathymetric data to create a precise map of seafloor topography and assess the Indonesian ECS, the coastal shelf extending greater than 200 nautical miles off the country’s coast.
According to Fajar, following the invention of the seamount, BIG organized a coordination meeting with geologists, hydrographers and native representatives of Pacitan Regency and East Java Province, in addition to representatives of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, BRIN and the Institute of Hydrooceanographic Center of the Indonesian Navy (Pushidrosal).
A seamount is described as an equidimensional undersea mountain that “rises 1,000 m from the deepest isobath surrounding many of the feature” within the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Standard B-6 Standardization of Names for Undersea Features.
He continued that the BIG multilateral coordination meeting decided that the underwater feature present in the waters south of Pacitan was a seamount, as defined by the IHO. In accordance with Government Regulation (PP) No. 2/2021 on topographic naming standards, the power shall be given a reputation.
In addition to the Pacitan regency proposing its preferred name for the underwater structure, Fajar stated that the federal government will begin research in March to search out an appropriate name for the recently discovered seamount.
The final name of the seamount was then submitted to the GEBCO Subcommittee on Names of Undersea Objects after its inclusion within the Indonesian Gazetteer of Topographic Names (SCUFN). Fajar added that if the seamount ever caused a natural disaster, it will not receive a reputation.
Source: TheStar.com
