It's not well known but the US effort to produce an aeromagnetic map of the major oceans in the '50's by flying (mainly) Neptunes back and forth and recording their MAD kit was a major piece of the information which led to the revolution of Global Plate Tectonics in the mid-60's in the Earth Sciences.
And in the early '70's the Russians seemed very interested in producing detailed gravity maps of various parts of the world such as N Africa and the Middle East - totally unconnected with the military I'm sure - but there were some people in C London who seemed very interested and exercised by the idea as well.