The minister described the atlas yesterday as a вЂњTechnological advances in sea mapping using multi-beam sonar have made these images possible, and the atlas is a showcase and a potential data set that reflects the tremendous effort made by many people to gather this material,вЂќ he says.

It was while UCC was working on some data as part of its own research on cold water coral that the atlas idea evolved, Dorschel says. Its evidence of extreme weather events could also contribute to climate change research, to ocean modelling and to continued studies of marine life, including the extensive activity in Irish waters of marine mammals such as dolphins or whales. The extensive data already gathered has application for discovery of organisms that produce вЂњbioactiveвЂќ compounds with possible therapeutic applications, hydrocarbon exploration, offshore windfarm site selection, work on marine aggregate resources, habitat mapping and policy formation on protection of carbonate mounds and coldwater coral reefs. It is called Infomar (Integrated mapping for the sustainable development of IrelandвЂ™s marine resource) and it could last another 15 years, funding permitting. In 2006, an inshore survey was begun off the southwest coast. Once the deepwater element was completed, the joint survey moved closer to dry land. Data had been collected by 11 survey ships and several aircraft across a sea area extending more than 1,100kms out west or, as the GSI put it, вЂњhalfway between here and IcelandвЂќ. A former British navy ship, the 79.25-metre RV Bligh, was one of two vessels contracted to conduct the initial work.Д«y 2005, the survey had mapped an area equivalent to the territory of Germany and Austria combined. вЂњThe maps have an aesthetic quality вЂ“ they really are quite beautiful,вЂќ says Dr Dorschel.ДЄfter years of lobbying by GSI geologists, the seabed survey started in 1999 with a budget of ВЈ21 million (в‚¬26.6 million). Old shipwrecks, such as the Lusitaniaoff the south coast, could be seen in the colour coding for some of the first maps, with dark blue matching the deepest areas.

Sensitive habitats of deepwater coral, an offshore вЂњeiscir riadaвЂќ or glacial ridge that gives the southwest coast one of its вЂњfeetвЂќ and a 40km fault line, which indicates that this island was once two halves, were among the many discoveries recorded during the survey work. вЂњIt shows that Ireland doesnвЂ™t stop at the coastline and that there is an incredibly rich and varied resource out there,вЂќ he says. Ireland may be the first country in the world to map its underwater territory in such detail, according to one of the atlasвЂ™s co-authors, Dr Boris Dorschel, a researcher in the universityвЂ™s school of biological, earth and environmental sciences. The deepwater survey was the most extensive of its type in Europe, extending from the edge of IrelandвЂ™s continental shelf some 50km west to a distance of 1,000km into the Atlantic. The three-dimensional images chronicle the extent of survey work conducted between depths of 200 and 3,500 metres. Its publication was marked in Dublin yesterday by the Minister of State for Natural Resources Conor Lenihan, when he opened the Geoscience 2010 conference in Dublin Castle.

The atlas draws on data gathered by the Irish national seabed survey, which was initiated by the GSI in 1999. The Atlas of the Deep Water Seabed, Ireland, charting a marine territory 10 times this islandвЂ™s land mass, has been compiled by University College Cork (UCC), working with the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) and the Marine Institute. A new atlas features 3D images of the most extensive deepwater survey of its type in Europe, extending from the Irish edge of the continental shelf 1,000km into the Atlantic

Map of the abyss