Coast Guard Icebreaker Finds Small, Uncharted Seamount in Beaufort Sea

 

While under way off the coast of Alaska on a survey mission, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Healy and an embarked science party found a previously-uncharted volcano-like feature, like a small seamount. 

USCGC Healy finished up a repair period in Seattle on October 1 and got under way for a rare late-season Arctic deployment. Her first mission was to deploy oceanographic buoys and conduct surveys along a portion of the Coast Guard's proposed Alaskan Arctic Coast Port Access Route Study corridor, a planned route connecting the village of Utqiagvik on Alaska's North Slope to the U.S.-Canadian border demarcation in the Beaufort Sea.

During the first phase of the survey, Healy's sonar revealed a volcano-like feature about 585 meters tall protruding from the seabed, with a minimum depth below the surface of about 1,600 meters. The science party also detected signs of what may be a gas plume rising from the feature - a common feature for volcanic seamounts. 

The area has very little marine traffic, and it was only lightly surveyed in decades past. Many parts of the Arctic lack detailed bathymetric charts, and the new surveyed routes are intended to ensure safe navigation for deep-draft shipping. "These findings are exciting and offer insight into what may exist beneath the ocean's surface, much of which is unknown in this region," said Capt. Meghan McGovern, the commanding officer of NOAA survey ship Fairweather and a member of the Healy's mapping team. 

A NOAA team from Fairweather is embarked aboard Healy to add hydrographic survey expertise for the mission. They are using the icebreaker's multibeam sonar to produce detailed, precise measurements of the seabed along the proposed deep-draft shipping route.

After completing the first elements of the mission, Healy returned south through the Bering Strait and called at Dutch Harbor, arriving Thursday. In a statement, the Coast Guard said that her mission continues. 

Healy sustained a fire in a transformer room on July 25 while operating off of Banks Island, near the western entrance to the Northwest Passage. While her propulsion remained functional, as a precautionary measure she returned to Seattle early, arriving August 16. She got back under way once more on October 1.  

Healy is one of the Coast Guard's two seagoing icebreakers, along with the 1976-built USCGC Polar Star.