SCAMP: Phase II Installation of Geophysical Survey Instrumentation for SCICEX

Phase two of the Seafloor Characterization and Mapping Pod (SCAMP) project will construct, assemble and complete the installation of the Sidescan Swath Bathymetric Sonar (SSBS) and the High Resolution Sub-bottom Profiler (HRSP) pods on the USS HAWKBILL, a US Navy 637-class submarine. Completion of SCAMP will augment the existing complement of biological, physical, chemical and geophysical survey instrumentation currently utilized in the NSF/ONR Submarine program SCICEX, resulting in new data, never before collected in the deep Arctic: swath backscatter and bathymetry as well as sub-bottom profiler date. The submarine will deploy on the unclassified SCICEX cruise to the Arctic in June 1998 from Honolulu, following dockside and at-sea testing of SCAMP. The mobility of the submarine below the pack ice and the willingness of the US Navy to deploy the USS HAWKBILL with active sonars, makes this an exceptional opportunity to map the deep Arctic Ocean. SCAMP will provide data sets necessary for: Site selection for bottom sampling and Arctic Drilling, which will expose the paleo-oceanographic history of the Arctic. Accurate digital terrain models required for modeling ocean circulation in the Arctic and understanding it's impact on global climate. Detailed mapping of the slowest spreading mid-ocean ridge, the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. Mapping of peri-glacial features (iceberg plow marks etc.) on the shelves and high plateau in the basin, mass wasting features, channels and sediment waves in the deep basin, which will expand our knowledge of the Pleistocene history of the Arctic and sediment fluxes into the basin during the Holocene. Study of the history of the Amerasian Basin, which is floored by oceanic crust of probable Cretaceous age, but has no known plate boundaries.