Mapmaking, chartmaking, and other geophysical surveying enterprises always seems to get the short end of the federal budget (the U.S. Geological Survey is a perennial target), but attention to detail can save a submarine full of problems down the road. Like on January 8th, when the nuclear-powered submarine San Francisco was travelling at high speed, 500 feet under the surface, heading towards shore leave in Brisbane, Australia, when it ran straight into a poorly-charted undersea mountain:
Military officials have said the mountain, which rises within 100 feet of the surface, was not on the navigation charts that the Navy uses. One sailor was killed and 60 were injured.... It's bow was severly damaged, and 23 sailors were hurt too badly to stand watch as the vessel limped back to Guam.
...The main chart on the submarine was prepared by another agency within the Defense Department in 1989. Officials at the charting office have said they never had the resources to use the huge volumes of satellite data to improve their charts.
...It is possible that the San Francisco could have detected the undersea mountain if it had used its active sonar system. But since early in the cold war, submarines have avoided using active sonar, which emits loud pings that can give away their location. Even on training missions, they practice operating silently and rely on passive sonar systems that can detect only ships and other objects making noise.
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