Professor, students collect data from seafloor
September 28, 2011
Located at the top of the globe, beneath the Arctic Ocean, the Amerasia Basin is poorly
understood. This large depression in the ocean floor was created during the Mesozoic
Era, the age of the dinosaurs, but how the tectonic plates shifted to open up and
create the basin remains a puzzle. Professor Bernard Coakley and a 12-person crew
aboard the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth hope to find the fossil plate boundaries associated with the basin and recreate the
birth of this mysterious feature. The research cruise began when the ship left Dutch
Harbor Sept. 6 and it will run until Oct. 10.
More information is available in the UAF Newsroom.