A complete map of the world's seabed

How far away is a complete map of the world's seabed?

The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 project reported in April 2026 that 28.7% of the world's ocean floor has been mapped. Its stated aim is a complete seabed map by 2030, but the releases give no costed plan for finishing. Uncrewed vessels and vehicles have contributed large survey volumes, yet the sources opened do not show how coverage is calculated or what share is mapped at 100 metre resolution.

AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.
WHERE WE AREScaling up

Nearly here. It works and is being scaled up.

Many organisations contribute data: the April 2026 release says 220 have contributed, including 15 new contributors in the past year. A 2018 donation covered about 120,000 square kilometres. Coverage was 28.7% in April 2026. The last figure opened at 100 metre resolution is from 2019, when more than 80% of the seafloor was unmapped at that resolution. The stage is scaling because the work runs across many organisations, but the complete map is not close to finished.

The tech tree

Everything recorded on Vrulum that this future needs, oldest foundations at the top and the goal at the bottom. Lines show what each step requires.

What it takes: A complete map of the world's seabed Unlocked Being researched Locked
  1. 2007Autonomous underwater vehiclesCommercial Unlocked.
  1. 2018Survey vehicles donate large volumes of seafloor dataDone Unlocked.
  2. 2019Uncrewed high-resolution mapping tested in a prizeDone Unlocked.
  3. 2026Data from 220 organisations contributes to the projectIn progress Being researched.
  4. 2026Share of the ocean floor mapped rises from under 15% at launchIn progress Being researched.
  5. Date not recordedMapping at 100 metre resolution or better across the ocean floorNot started Locked.
  6. Date not recordedComplete map of the world's ocean floor by 2030Not started Locked.
  1. GoalA complete map of the world's seabedGoalRequires: Autonomous underwater vehicles, Data from 220 organisations contributes to the project, Share of the ocean floor mapped rises from under 15% at launch, Survey vehicles donate large volumes of seafloor data, Uncrewed high-resolution mapping tested in a prize, Mapping at 100 metre resolution or better across the ocean floor, Complete map of the world's ocean floor by 2030. Locked.

The road so far

2 of 6 steps done, 2 in progress.

  1. In progress · 20 Apr 2026Data from 220 organisations contributes to the project

    The April 2026 release says 220 organisations have contributed data, including 15 new contributors over the past year. The release does not say how the contributed data is combined into the global grid. [1]

  2. In progress · 20 Apr 2026Share of the ocean floor mapped rises from under 15% at launch

    The project launched in June 2017, when the Nippon Foundation said less than 15% of the ocean floor was accurately mapped. Seabed 2030 reported 26.1% in June 2024, 27.3% in June 2025 and 28.7% in April 2026. The releases do not explain how the percentage is calculated. The 2025 release says 'mapped to modern standards', a phrase the 2026 release does not use, so the figures may not be directly comparable. [4][3][2][1]

  3. Done · 21 Jun 2018Survey vehicles donate large volumes of seafloor data

    Ocean Infinity agreed to give the project about 120,000 square kilometres of seafloor data from its search for missing flight MH370 in the Indian Ocean. The data was collected by a fleet of eight autonomous underwater vehicles carried by the vessel Seabed Constructor. The 2018 article gives no numeric resolution for the data. [7]

  4. Done · 2019Uncrewed high-resolution mapping tested in a prize

    The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE required finalists to map 250 square kilometres at 5 metre resolution within 24 hours, without relying on crewed ships or GPS. The grand prize was awarded in 2019 to the GEBCO-Nippon Foundation Alumni team. The prize page gives conflicting seabed percentages, so this record uses only its rules and the 2019 award. [8]

  5. Not startedMapping at 100 metre resolution or better across the ocean floor

    The 2017 launch said the goal was to leave no features larger than 100 metres unmapped. A 2019 Eos article quoted Vicki Ferrini of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory saying more than 80% of the seafloor remained unmapped at 100 metres or better. No later figure at this resolution was found in the sources opened. [4][9]

  6. Not startedComplete map of the world's ocean floor by 2030

    The GEBCO page describes the project's aim as the complete mapping of the global ocean floor by 2030, and quotes an initiative to map 100% of the topography of the World Ocean floor by 2030. This is a target, not a forecast. The sources opened do not show a costed plan, a funding figure or a completion date beyond the 2030 aim. [5][4][1]

Why it matters

The project's stated aim is a complete map of the ocean floor. The 2019 Eos article quotes a researcher saying more than 80% of the seafloor was unmapped at 100 metre resolution or better at that time. The sources opened do not say which uses of the data depend most on that gap.

What stands in the way

  • About 71% of the ocean floor was unmapped in April 2026. The two most recent releases show a gain of 1.4 percentage points between June 2025 and April 2026. Reaching 100% by the end of 2030 would need roughly 15 percentage points a year from April 2026. This comparison is this record's own arithmetic from the project's figures, not a project forecast.
  • Resolution is a larger gap than coverage. The last figure opened at 100 metre resolution or better is from a 2019 article, which said more than 80% of the seafloor remained unmapped at that resolution.
  • No release opened gives a budget or cost to finish the map. The 2017 launch and the 2026 release give no funding amounts, so the cost of completion cannot be checked from these sources.
  • Data access relies on contributions from other organisations and vessel operators. The 2017 launch said the project would draw on depth logging from fishing boats, merchant vessels and pleasure boats, through a cooperative framework for accessing existing data.
  • The method is not public in these sources. The releases do not say how the percentage is calculated or define 'modern standards', so the progress figures cannot be checked against a stated basis.

Signals to watch

  • The next annual coverage figure from Seabed 2030, and whether the release states how it is calculated.
  • A published share of the ocean floor mapped at 100 metre resolution or better, which the 2019 article gives as the main gap.
  • A funding figure or costed plan for the remaining seafloor.
  • Survey programmes using uncrewed vehicles that donate or publish areas of tens of thousands of square kilometres, as the 2018 Ocean Infinity donation did.
  • New partners that operate autonomous systems, such as Ulysses, which the project's news page announced on 27 July 2026.

Sources

  1. other
    Global seabed mapping reaches new milestone as five million square kilometres added in a year
    Seabed 2030 Project (Nippon Foundation-GEBCO), 20 Apr 2026.
  2. other
    Seabed 2030 announces millions of square kilometers of new seafloor data on World Hydrography Day
    Seabed 2030 Project (Nippon Foundation-GEBCO), 21 Jun 2025.
  3. news
    Seabed 2030 Announces Latest Progress on World Hydrography Day
    Ocean News (reporting the Seabed 2030 release of 21 June 2024), 21 Jun 2024.
  4. other
    Announcing the Launch of Seabed 2030
    The Nippon Foundation, 7 Jun 2017.
  5. other
    The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed2030 project (undated page; date shown is when it was accessed)
    GEBCO, Oct 2026.
  6. other
    Seabed 2030 (home page, partner news) (undated page; date shown is when it was accessed)
    Seabed 2030 Project (Nippon Foundation-GEBCO), Oct 2026.
  7. news
    Ocean Infinity Donates Data from MH370 Search to Seabed Mapping Effort
    Ocean News, 21 Jun 2018.
  8. other
    Ocean Discovery XPRIZE (Shell-sponsored) (undated page; date shown is the prize award year)
    XPRIZE Foundation, 2019.
  9. news
    Momentum Grows for Mapping the Seafloor
    Eos, 9 Dec 2019.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.