Seafloor Mapping Expedition Continues in the Arctic

Sea Technology, Sep 2007

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey, in partnership with the University of New Hampshire's (UNH) Joint Hydrographic Center and the National Science Foundation, embarked on a four-week cruise to map a portion of the Arctic seafloor, which started August 17.

This is the third expedition in a series of cruises aboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy designed to map the seafloor on the northern Chukchi Cap in the Arctic Ocean. Scientists will explore this poorly known region to better understand its morphology and the potential for including this area within the United States' extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea.

The data collected during this cruise will also provide valuable information for better understanding seafloor processes and fisheries habitat, as well as provide input into climate and circulation models that will help scientists predict future conditions in the Arctic, researchers said.

Previous mapping cruises in this series were conducted in 2003 and 2004.

The Healy is equipped with more than 4,200 square feet of scientific laboratory space and a multibeam echo sounder, the primary tool that is used to map the seafloor. The research has been funded through a NOAA grant award to UNH and is headed by cruise chief scientist Larry Mayer at UNH with NOAA's Andy Armstrong serving as co-chief scientist.

The northern Chukchi Cap is an ice-covered region of the Arctic Ocean where little data about the seafloor are available.

The cruise will primarily map the 2,500-meter depth contour and the foot of the continental slope-the area where the continental margin transitions into the deep seafloor.