Recent marine sediments from Alaska and northwest Canadian Arctic

Geological data collected during the Beaufort Sea Expeditions of the U. S. Navy in Aug. 1950 and Aug.-Sept. 1951 included 179 bottom-sediment samples and detailed soundings from 35,000 miles of sea floor in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Methods and analysis of samples are described; detailed discussion follows of size distribution and texture of sediments, minerals and rocks found, decomposable organic matter, cores taken, hydrogen-ion concentration and oxidation-reduction potential, and organisms found. Shelf and slope sediments are dominantly mud, with much ice-rafted sand and gravel found on the shelf. Comparisons are made with adjacent arctic regions. "The Beaufort and Chukchi seas and their deep water extensions are part of a sedimentary province which appears to extend from the Canadian Archipelago to Novaya Zemlya, off Siberia."