MADISON, WI (AP)— 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 bottom of the world's largest freshwater system.
Only 15 percent of the lakes' bottom has been mapped, according to the Great Lakes Observing System. The organization has been pushing since 2018 to secure funding to map the entire lakebed in high-resolution.
Advocates argue the effort would paint a detailed picture of shipwrecks, infrastructure such as pipelines, and topography that would inform storm surge models as the climate warms.
Two Congress members from Michigan introduced a bill that would allocate $200 million for the initiative.
