Professor, students collect data from seafloor

September 28, 2011

Marmian Grimes

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.

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