Seabed morphology, geologic framework, and paleoceanography of the NW Passage

Thirty kHz multibeam echosounder and 3.5 kHz sub-bottom profiler data were continuously collected as CCGS Amundsen transited the NW Passage during the 2004 and 2005 ArcticNet field programs. These geophysical data in conjunction with sediment cores collected at key sites are being used to map seabed morphology, interpret the regional geologic framework and to investigate the palaoceanographic history of the NW Passage over the past 20000 years. The known, but very patchy, geologic framework of the seabed of the NW Passage inter-channels consists of bedrock base overlain by discontinuous glacial till. Thin glaciomarine sediments drape the till and/or bedrock. Discontinuous localized accumulations of Holocene sediment infill depressions with thickness varying from