Bathymetry map courtesy of Jakobsson, M., R. Macnab, L. Mayer, R. Anderson, M. Edwards, J. Hatzky, H. W. Schenke, and P. Johnson (2008), An improved bathymetric portrayal of the Arctic Ocean: Implications for ocean modeling and geological, geophysical and oceanographic analyses, Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: doi: 10.1029/2008gl033520.

10. More about mapping the Arctic seafloor
Alan Bailey, Petroleum News
September 7, 2008 - The U.S. Geological Survey has released more information about a joint U.S. and Canadian expedition that is mapping the Arctic seafloor offshore the two countries. As reported in the Aug. 24 edition of Petroleum News, Canada and the United States have teamed up to survey the seabed north of the Yukon-Alaska border. The joint work is expected to help prepare submissions to claim jurisdiction over seabed areas beyond the 225-mile coastal economic zones. The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy is assisting the Canadian Coast Guard ship Louis St. Laurent to undertake sonar scans on the Beaufort Sea bottom. “The two ship experiment allows both the United States and Canada to collect and share complementary data in areas where data acquisition is costly, logistically difficult and sometimes dangerous,” said USGS scientist and expedition member Deborah Hutchinson in a Sept. 2 USGS press release. “Both countries benefit through sharing of resources and data as well as increasing the likelihood of success by utilizing two ice-breaker ships in these remote
areas of the Arctic Ocean.” A multibeam bathymetry system will collect a swath of information along 3 kilometers wide path, thus creating a three-dimensional view of the seafloor, said the Healy’s chief scientist Jonathon Childs. The Extended Continental Shelf Task Force, a government-wide group headed by the U.S. Department of State, is coordinating the research, USGS said. Participants in the task force include USGS, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Science Foundation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Minerals Management Service and the Arctic Research Commission. NOAA is providing funding.