Geological Survey of Canada Offshore Geophysical Survey Tracks, Beaufort Shelf and Slope - Shapefiles

Summary: This dataset includes ship's locations for several offshore surveys conducted from the ArcticNet research vessel "Amundsen". This corresponds to where "light" sonar data were collected over several years. Related GSC data themes in the Polar Data Catalogue include information on seabed samples, images of seabed topography (shape and water depth) from multibeam sonar and sub-seabed sonar data capable of imaging geological information at and up to 50m below the seabed. These data are used to evaluate the nature of the seabed in terms of the various past and present processes which lead to the present environment and its dynamics. Some of the relevant concerns are the nature of the seabed in terms of stability for life-forms, its strength for possible engineering installations, and the likelihood of change in the seabed with natural environmental influences. These influences can include past climate effects such as glacier cover and its ancient shaping of the seabed landscape and its mud and sand deposits, storms, currents, sea-ice impact on the seabed, possible presence and change related to shallow natural gas below the seabed, permafrost at and below the seabed and its natural changes, possible effects of earthquakes on the stability of that sediment, including marine landslides.