New Discovery: An Underwater Mountain
On August 25, scientists aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Healy discovered an underwater mountain, known as a seamount, protruding from the Arctic’s seafloor. The yet-to-be-named seamount is the first known to be discovered in the Arctic since 2003, when scientists discovered a seamount later named Healy. Underwater features are generally considered seamounts if they reach a height of at least 1,000 meters above the seafloor.
The discovery was made while Healy was en route to map seafloor features targeted for investigation. The ship took a slight detour to map a small contour that appeared on a 2002 Russian map. As the ship traveled toward the new target, watchstander Christine Hedge, a teacher from Indiana onboard the Healy as part of the NOAA’s Teacher at Sea Program, noticed something much more significant beginning to appear on the shipboard monitors. She alerted the scientific team in time to redirect the ship, which enabled the Healy’s high-tech 12kHz multibeam echosounder mapping system to reveal the full extent of the seamount.
Details on the seamount, about 700 miles north of Alaska, are below.
- 81_31.57N 134_28.80W
- Shallowest depth 2622 m
- Depth at base 3710 m
- Approximately 14 nautical miles long, 4 nautical miles wide, oriented N-S
For more information on this seamount, check out the below blog sites.
U.S. Coast Guard
http://cutterhealy.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/healy-science-team-makes-seamount-discovery/
Captain Andy Armstrong from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Co-Director of the Joint Hydrographic Center
http://www.ccom-jhc.unh.edu/index.php?p=31|32|33|34|0|1|34&page=outreach/projects/healy0905/HE0905_blog.php
Christine Hedge, NOAA’s Teacher at Sea
http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/2009/hedge/hedge_log12.pdf
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- 3-D view of newly discovered seamount. Click image for details.
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- 3-D image of newly discovered seamount. Click image for details.
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