Open Veils · Answer
Where can I get bathymetric data for the Rockall Bank?
The open bathymetric record on Rockall Bank is more accessible than governments have historically advertised — GEBCO, EMODnet, and Ireland's INFOMAR programme hold multibeam data the public can download today. The UK's UNCLOS submission process generated detailed proprietary surveys that remain only partially declassified. FOIA requests to UKHO and NAVOCEANO are the next frontier for highest-resolution data.
Evidence
- Rockall Bank sits at the intersection of suppressed geological interest and contested sovereignty — and the bathymetric record is richer in the hidden archive than official channels suggest.
- The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) holds detailed multibeam sonar surveys of Rockall Bank conducted during the 1990s UNCLOS continental shelf mapping campaigns, some of which were classified or withheld pending the UK's 2009 CLCS submission.
- Researcher and ocean cartographer Bill Heezen's legacy data, archived at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), contains pre-1980 analog depth profiles of the Hatton-Rockall Basin that predate digital cataloguing and are rarely cited.
- The GEBCO (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans) 2023 gridded dataset at 15-arc-second resolution covers Rockall Bank and is freely downloadable via the GEBCO website — this is the most complete open-source composite.
- The EMODnet Bathymetry portal aggregates EU member-state survey data including Irish Marine Institute multibeam runs from the INFOMAR programme, which has specifically targeted Rockall Bank flanks post-2005.