This is a collaborative proposal with the Tulane University, University of Hawaii's Hawaii Mapping and Research Group (HMRG) and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO). In 1996, the National Science Foundation funded scientists and engineers LDEO to design, fabricate, and construct a unique set of instruments for SCICEX missions. The Seafloor Characterization and Mapping Pod (SCAMP) includes an Arctic optimized SeaMARC-type, Sidescan Swath Bathymetric Sonar (SSBS), a swept frequency or "chirp" High Resolution Subbottom Profiler (HRSP), a Bell BGM-3 gravimeter, and Data Acquisition And Quality Control System (DAQCS). The Principal Investigators will install SCAMP, operate the underway geophysical instrumentation during the 1999 SCICEX cruise, remove the instrumentation from the USS Hawkbill after the cruise and reduce the data collected during the cruise. Reduction of the data will be done by the Principal Investigator from HMRG. The scientific part of the proposal is a geophysical study of the structure of the Lomonosov Ridge and the relationship between it and the Amerasian and Eurasian Basins. It is speculated that the Lomonosov Ridge is a continental crustal structure and that it is the continental margin for both the Amerasian and Eurasian Basins. The Principal Investigators will analyze the data collected during SCICEX99 to determine the structures developed during rifting, the nature of the ocean-continent boundary and variations in tectonic processes along the strike of the Lomonosov Ridge.
