An undersea mountain south of Pacitan regency, East Java, has been found by a geological survey crew from the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG).
The undersea mountain, also known as a seamount, is situated on the ocean floor at a depth of 6,000m and is 2,200m tall, indicating that the seamount's peak is situated 3,800m below sea level, according to BIG's marine mapping coordinator Fajar Triady Mugiarto on Monday (Feb. 13).
The newly discovered seamount is situated between the administrative boundaries of Central Java and East Java, about 260 kilometers south of Pacitan, according to Fajar.
The extended continental shelf (ECS), which stretches across the regions of Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara, was surveyed by the crew from BIG's Marine and Coastal Mapping Center (PKLP).
In partnership with the National Innovation and Research Agency (BRIN), the study was carried out 52 days at sea on the KR Baruna Jaya III between September and November 2022.
The BRIN-owned research vessel was used to gather bathymetric data in order to create a precise map of the seafloor topography and assess Indonesia's ECS, or the coastal shelf that extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the nation's shores.
Following the seamount's discovery, according to Fajar, BIG organized a coordination meeting with geologists, hydrographers, and local representatives from Pacitan regency and East Java province, as well as representatives from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the BRIN, and the Hydro-Oceanographic Center of the Indonesian Navy (Pushidrosal).
A seamount is described as an undersea mountain with an equidimensional shape that "rises 1000m from deepest isobath encircling most of the feature" in the International Hydrographic Organization's (IHO) B-6 Standardization of Undersea Feature Names.
He continued that the BIG multi-party coordination meeting had decided that the underwater feature found in the waters south of Pacitan was a seamount based on the definition provided by the IHO. According to Government Regulation (PP) No. 2/2021 on topographic naming standards, the feature would be given a name.
In addition to Pacitan regency offering its favored name for the underwater structure, Fajar stated that the government would begin research in March to come up with a suitable name for the recently discovered seamount.
The seamount's final name would then be presented to the GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names after being entered into Indonesia's Gazetteer of Topographic Names (SCUFN). Fajar added that if the seamount ever caused a natural disaster, it would not be granted a name.
Source: TheStar.com
