This is a collaborative proposal with Dr. Leonid Polyak at the Ohio State University and Dr. Margo Edwards from the Hawaii Mapping Research Group at the University of Hawaii. They will use the Seafloor Characterization and Mapping Pod (SCAMP) which has been installed on a U.S. Navy submarine for a dedicated science cruise (SCICEX). They will obtain mapping data from the Arctic Ocean floor to test the hypothesis of the existence of a Pleistocene Arctic Ice Sheet. One of the few reliable methods of testing this hypothesis is to directly image the relatively shallow portions of the Arctic Ocean seafloor for glacial impact. SCAMP will provide a unique opportunity to obtain these data. The Principal Investigators will use SCAMP to collect backscatter, swath bathymetry, and subbottom profiler data across the Chukchi Borderland, parts of the Lomonsov Ridge, and possibly the Canadian continental margin. They will attempt to find sub-glacial and ice-marginal seafloor features, iceberg plowmarks, glacial-sole markings, ice-marginal indicators, and other glacier-related debris flows. If no direct sub-glacial features are revealed, the depth range of iceberg plowmarks will provide critical information on the thickness of ice in the Arctic Ocean during glacial periods. Mapping plowmark orientation will allow for the reconstruction of the Arctic Ocean paleo-circulation patterns. The data will be processed by the Hawaii Mapping Research Group in collaboration with scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory who were primarily responsible for the engineering and development of SCAMP.
