U.S. Researchers Set Off on Polar Mapping Mission

U.S. scientists this week plan to set off on a four-week mission to map a little-known part of the sea floor below polar ice, according to news from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Researchers with NOAA and the University of New Hampshire's Joint Hydrographic Center are scheduled to begin the mission aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy this Friday. Their goal is to explore the seabed morphology below the northern Chukchi Cap and to determine whether the region could qualify for inclusion in the U.S.'s extended continental shelf.

Under the Law of the Sea, nations adjacent to oceans automatically have sovereignty over the first 200 offshore nautical miles of the continental shelf. However, countries can seek an extended reach into ocean regions if they can offer enough scientific data proving a larger continental shelf. Such determinations are judged by a technical organization called the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.

Last week, Russia raised the hackles of Canadian officials by sending a submarine to plant a Russian flag on the seabed under the North Pole. Interest in control over polar regions is growing in large part because of the great oil and gas reserves believed to be buried below the seabed, possible as much as one-fourth of the world's yet-to-be-discovered supplies, according to U.S. Geological Survey (http://www.usgs.gov) estimates.

Under a 1982 U.N. agreement, the five countries with coastal borders on the Arctic Ocean -- Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the U.S. -- have 10 years after ratifying the agreement to map the polar seabed. The U.S. has not yet signed the treaty. However, the Bush administration is now seeking Senate consent for U.S. participation in the treaty. Signing the agreement would provide the U.S. with participating-nation rights to protect coastal and ocean resources.

This is not the first time that NOAA scientists have ventured into the Chukchi Cap area to map the sea floor, though. Previous expeditions in the region were conducted in 2003 and 2004.

Researchers aboard the Healy will use a multibeam echo sounder to map the area's sea floor from the base of the continental slope to a depth of about 8,250 feet (2,500 meters). In additional research being coordinated through the National Science Foundation, scientists on the ship will also deploy ice beacons and buoys to measure long-term ice drift, and will conduct sea ice observations and analyses.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "NOAA Coast Survey Continues Sea Floor Mapping Expedition in the Arctic." URL: (http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2007/aug07/noaa07-043.html)