News from the Field

USGS and Canadian Scientists Are Planning a Second Cruise to Map the Arctic Sea Floor

U.S. and Canadian scientists will conduct a joint 42-day Arctic mission this summer to collect scientific data about the extended continental shelf and Arctic seafloor. The mission, scheduled from August 6 to September 16, will continue the collaboration in extended continental shelf data collection in the Arctic started during last summer’s joint survey, with plans for further cooperation in 2010. The interagency and intergovernmental effort will feature the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy and the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Louis S. St-Laurent.

The 2009 Continental Shelf Survey will emphasize the region north of Alaska onto Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge and eastwards toward the Canada Archipelago. The mission will help define the extended continental shelf (beyond 200 miles from shore) in the Arctic Ocean, as well as U.S. and Canadian sovereign rights based on criteria set forth in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Additional information on the Extended Continental Shelf Project is available at: http://www.continentalshelf.gov and http://www.international.gc.ca/continental/.

Read about last year's cruise in a Sound Waves news article: Joint U.S.-Canadian Icebreaker Surveys in the Arctic Ocean

Read the USGS 'Arctic Chronicles' blog written from onboard Healy during the September 2008 cruise:
http://www.usgs.gov/journals/arctic/

Learn more about the extended continental shelf at: http://www.state.gov/g/oes/continentalshelf/

Other USGS News Links:

• Sound Waves Archives
• Information from the USGS newsroom