'Grand Canyon' under the sea mapped by Royal Navy ship with state-of-the-art technology
Spectacular images beamed back from 250m beneath Red Sea
Ship made discovery on mission to update Admiralty charts
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED:09:43 EST, 24 February 2013| UPDATED: 10:54 EST, 24 February 2013
An underwater 'Grand Canyon' has been captured in a series of spectacular images created by a Royal Navy survey ship.
HMS Enterprise discovered the 250 metre-deep canyon in the Red Sea during a nine-month mission to improve understanding of the waters east of Suez.
The 3D images were created after the ship left the Egyptian port of Safaga and were made using the Devonport-based survey ship's multibeam echo sounder.
A Grand Canyon-style ocean floor hidden deep under the Red Sea has been discovered by HMS Enterprise and beamed back
to land in these incredible images
Commander Derek Rae, commanding officer of HMS Enterprise, said: 'These features could be the result of ancient rivers scouring through the rock strata before the Red Sea flooded millennia ago.
'Some may be far younger and still in the process of being created by underwater currents driven by the winds and tidal streams as they flow through this area of the Red Sea, carving their way through the soft sediment and being diverted by harder bed rock.