A ridge under the Atlantic Ocean was first inferred by Matthew Fontaine Maury in 1850. The ridge was discovered during the expedition of HMS Challenger in 1872.[2] A team of scientists on board, led by Charles Wyville Thomson, discovered a large rise in the middle of the Atlantic while investigating the future location for a transatlantic telegraph cable.[3] The existence of such a ridge was confirmed by sonar in 1925[4] and was found to extend around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean by the German Meteor expedition.[5]