Physical oceanography and submarine geology of the seas to the Lebour

• Main Author: E. C. Lafond
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1954
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Bering Sea; Bering Strait; Pacific; Wrangel Island; Barrow; Chukchi; Point Barrow; Alaska
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.547.2215; http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/arctic/Arctic7-2-93.pdf

A LASKA, with the north Pacific Ocean to the south, a transition zone through the Bering and Chukchi seas to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north, is exceptionally well situated for studies in oceanography. These diverse water masses contain a variety of ecological environments, and different physical and geological conditions. However, owing to problems of trans-portation and lack of facilities, relatively little oceanographic work has been done in the seas around Alaska. Most information on soundings, currents, and ice conditions in the area has come from commercial ships engaged in whaling and shipping. Even much of the information on physical oceanography and marine geology has been obtained incidental to other operations. The main studies of the physical and chemical structure of the water were made by U.S. Coast Guard vessels staffed with University of Washington oceanographers during the summers of 1933, 1934, 1937, and 1938. On these cruises serial stations, making oceanographic sections, were occupied throughout the eastern Bering Sea and Bering Strait, and along one line to Point Barrow. Another prewar cruise was made by the M a d which obtained considerable data between Herald Shoal and Ostrov Vrangelya (Wrangel Island) (Sverdrup, 1929). During the war the principal oceanographic work carried out consisted of bathythermograph observations in the southern part of the Bering Sea. Postwar investigations consisted of scattered bathythermograph observations and oceanographic stations from icebreakers running through the Bering and