Bathymetric map of the Bodie Island seeps, an area of underwater methane plumes (blue/green vertical lines) on the sea floor in the Atlantic Ocean off the US east coast created using multibeam sonar. Red dots indicate methane seep locations logged in previous expeditions. Methane seeps are plumes of methane gas emerging from underwater fissures in the Earths crust. They are an important source of carbon and energy for deep sea ecosystems. Contours indicate 10 metre intervals. The colour scale indicates depth: red/yellow indicates shallower areas and purple/blue the deeper ones. This map was created using sonar data collected by the Okeanos Explorer and processed by NOAAs Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER).