E/V Nautilus 2021 Mapping: US West Coast to Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument

In 2021, E/V Nautilus expeditions covered broad areas of the northern and eastern Pacific, mapping the seafloor with the ship's multibeam sonar and sub-bottom profiler. Mapping provides the foundation for expeditions by modeling seafloor geomorphology in advance of exploratory ROV dives. New mapping data also contribute to a primary goal of the National Strategy for Mapping, Exploring, and Characterizing the United States Exclusive Economic Zone (NOMEC, June 2020), add to the Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) data synthesis, and support the broader global goals of producing a complete global seabed model under the Nippon FoundationGEBCO Seabed 2030 project (SB2030). The 2021 Nautilus mapping resulted in a total mapped area of 107,246 km2 of seafloor, including 80,829 km2 within the US Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), along 22,904 km of trackline.