Seabed properties and geohazards across the Arctic Ocean report – by Stockholm University

In the context of the Northern EU Gateways Project, the Department of Geological Sciences, part of Stockholm University (SU), wrote the report titled ‘Seabed properties and geohazards across the Arctic Ocean’ on the analysis of bathymetry and seafloor geology within the high Arctic EEZs of Norway, Greenland, Canada, and the USA as well as the central Arctic Ocean.
The desktop study focused on seabed properties and geohazards in the central Arctic Ocean, sea-ice covered segment of a potential route, which would connect Svalbard, the Bering Strait, Japan, and Korea.  The perennial Arctic Ocean seaice cover reaches its annual minimum extent around mid-September. A common long-term reference is the September median sea-ice extent from 1991 to 2010, which extends from north of Svalbard at about 80°N to approximately 73°N, north of the Bering Strait. Consequently, this study investigates seabed properties and viable cable routes from the continental shelf of Svalbard off Ny-Ålesund to north of the Bering Strait. As sea-ice conditions will greatly affect the logistical challenges of a cable installation on the seafloor, they were considered in addition to seabed properties and geohazards for two of the four optional routes in this study. In general, the sea-ice conditions pose more challenges for icebreaker operations on the northern Greenland and Canadian Arctic Archipelago side of the central Arctic Ocean compared to a route closer to the North Pole.