The European-funded survey project has identified reefs, drop-offs, caves and even an area which might once have been a lagoon, in a three-mile stretch from County Antrim west around Rathlin Island to Donegal's Inishtrahull Island.
A shipwreck, thought to be that of the steamer ss Diamond, sunk near Rathlin in 1918 after colliding with the ss Lily, has also been found.
The Joint Irish Bathymetric Survey Project, run by the Marine Institute of Ireland in partnership with the UK's Maritime and Coastguard Agency, is surveying the seabed off the whole of the northern coasts of Ireland and Northern Ireland, some stretches of which have not been surveyed since Victorian times.
Graphics generated from multibeam bathymetry and backscatter survey data have provided detailed 3D imagery that can be played in movie mode, allowing the viewer to take a virtual flight over the seabed and see all its features.
All information gathered is to be processed by the UK's Hydrographic Office for the updating of nautical charts. The increased detail will be of benefit to divers, fishermen and, in shallower waters, yachtsmen wishing not to run aground.
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