As a joint effort by Canadian and American icebreakers approaches the end, researchers on the project that set out to map parts of the Arctic are reporting that they have found some things of interest, including some undersea volcanoes. 

This is the second mapping expedition conducted jointly my Canada and the United States and its main goal was to gather data on the continental shelf, including mostly unknown parts of the Canada Basin, which is located north of the Beaufort Sea. The information gathered will help sort out claims of sovereignty in the Arctic.

The two icebreakers on the expedition, Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis St. Laurent and U.S. Coast Guard cutter Healy, will be wrapping up the expedition in about a week.

The Geological Survey of Canada’s Jacob Verhoef, who headed up the mapping expedition for Natural Resources Canada said, “Each of the two ships, the Healy and the Louis, has their own equipment in order to accomplish this mission, and by combining it, we get a much more powerful data collection exercise.”

The Canadian icebreaker breaks the ice in front of the Healy, and the Healy collects three-dimensional mapping data from the ocean floor. The two switch roles while the Louis St. Laurent obtained readings on the thickness of sediment below the ocean floor.

Verhoef also said that the ships had collected 40 percent more data that had been expected. They also went over 200 kilometers farther to the north than they had first thought they would go.

The main purpose of the joint mission is to aid both countries in proving that their continental shelves actually extend past the current 200 nautical mile economic zone, the limit established by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. By claiming more of the continent shelf, both countries would have more access to the resources located there, including oil and natural gas.

“In the area of the Canada Basin, there is a significant amount of sediment. [This] is one of the scientific criteria by which we can define the outer limits of the continental shelf. The data collection will probably help us a lot in defining that outer limit,” Verhoef said.