Only 15% of the lakebed has been documented to modern standards, making it difficult to predict how floods, storms and erosion affect communities.

The Great Lakes mapping effort will pinpoint hundreds of shipwrecks, illuminate topographical features and identify fisheries, a marine scientist said.

Now, 40 years later, Boehme wants to launch another treasure hunt. As executive director of the Great Lakes Observing System, she’s leading a campaign to map every meter of the lakes’ bottom.

The Great Lakes map would provide fuller images of bottom features that have changed in the last 50 years due to erosion and shifting sands, giving navigators new depth findings that would improve ...

A map of the Great Lakes’ bottoms would benefit insurance companies, the shipping and fishing industries, construction projects and more.

The Great Lakes Observing System has been pushing since 2018 to create high-resolution maps of all five Great Lakes bottoms.

Only a fraction of the Great Lakes' bottom has been mapped, and those low-resolution charts were completed decades ago, according to the Great Lakes Observing System. The organization has been ...

Only a fraction of the Great Lakes' bottom has been mapped, and those low-resolution charts were completed decades ago, according to the Great Lakes Observing System.

The last effort to map the lakes came in the 1970s. Maps were largely created using single-beam sonar technology similar to today’s commercially available depth- and fish-finders.

The Great Lakes Observing System has been pushing since 2018 to create high-resolution maps of all five Great Lakes bottoms.

The last effort to map the lakes came in the 1970s. Maps were largely created using single-beam sonar technology similar to today's commercially available depth- and fish-finders.

What lies beneath the Great Lakes' waves is largely unknown, but there's a new push to learn more about thousands of shipwrecks, underwater infrastructure and the impacts of climate change on the ...