New Arctic Sea Floor Mapping Data Could Bolster US Claims

Bathymetric soundings taken last year showed the foot of Alaska's continental slope extending more than 100 nautical miles farther from the U.S. coast than previously believed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We found evidence that the foot of the slope was much farther out than we thought," said Larry Mayer, the chief scientist for the expedition last year. "That was the big discovery." The U.S. is the only Arctic nation not party to the Law of the Sea treaty, which is a contentious issue in the U.S. Congress. The Bush administration has been pushing for its approval. Scientists said their findings do not completely settle the question of where the U.S. could set a plausible boundary. "There's no question that the potential U.S. continental shelf and the potential shelf from Canada will have some overlap," said Andy Armstrong, NOAA co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center at the University of New Hampshire. "We'll have to work with bordering nations to sort out any potential overlaps." Mayer said the boundary with Russia is "just about established." The expedition, which cost at least US$1.2 million, focused on a section of the Chukchi Sea 400 to 600 miles north of Alaska. Scientists covered more than 6,200 miles using multibeam sonar from the deck of an icebreaker, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy, said Mayer, who is also co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center at the university in Durham, N.H. The resulting images of the relatively unexplored region are the most detailed ever collected and will be applied to a variety of research topics, said Capt. Steve Barnum director of NOAA's Office of Coast Survey. "These are entirely new insights into what the ocean bottom looks like," Barnum said. "The data will be used to gain a better understanding of many things, including ecosystems and climate circulation models." ... http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2008/02/11/4840752-ap.html

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