Search for MH370: New Geologic Insights Revealed through the Integration of Multiple Geophysical Datasets

Abstract

During the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), Fugro acquired the largest extent of high-resolution bathymetry in the southern Indian Ocean to date. Integration of these recently released multibeam echosounder (MBES) backscatter, bathymetry, water column, and sub-bottom profiler (SBP) data reveal additional insights into the characteristics of the Indian Ocean seafloor and the geologic and oceanographic processes that shaped it. From June 2014 to February 2017, the M/V Fugro Equator, the M/V Fugro Supporter, and to a lesser extent, others, collected MBES and sub-bottom data over 710,000 square kilometers in the search area and along transit lines using Kongsberg EM122 MBES systems. We use Fledermaus GeoCoder to process backscatter data, and ArcGIS to create mosaics of all survey lines. Kingdom SMT is used to interpret SBP data. Water column data are interpreted in Fledermaus Midwater. Fledermaus is then used to create a 3D representation of the dataset. In this presentation, we will highlight several prominent regional seafloor features, and illustrate insights gained by integrating MBES backscatter and water column data with bathymetric analyses. Backscatter data to the north of the southern flank of Broken Ridge illustrate the complexity to which sediment has been reworked downslope where intricate patterns of low backscatter intensities are observed. Here, exposed rocks form prominent high backscatter reflectors amid the surrounding low backscatter sediments. The lateral extent of high backscatter intensity reflectors south of the Diamantina reveals the expansiveness of exposed igneous rocks that resulted from seafloor spreading. Volcanic features, including off-axis volcanoes and leaky transforms are also interpreted as high backscatter anomalies in the tectonic spreading fabric to the north of the Geelvinck fracture zone, towards the southern extent of the dataset. These examples show that by integrating the entire suite of data collected by MBES and SBP systems, more detailed interpretations of the geologic processes that shaped the seafloor may be gained than by examination of bathymetry alone.