Studies of the inner shelf and coastal sedimentation environment of the Beaufort Sea from ERTS-1

The author has identified the following significant results. Northward flowing rivers of Alaska inundate extensive areas of sea ice during spring breakup. This process has been studied under the ERTS-1 program. Drainage of large volumes of fresh water through the ice at holes and cracks (strudel) causes scour depressions, over 4 m deep, and up to 20 m across in the sea floor below. Strudel scours occur within 30 km of river mouths, generally in areas where ERTS-1 imagery shows less potential for drifting ice to scour the bottom than elsewhere. The shapes and distribution patterns of strudel scours correspond with those of strudel seen in the ice canopy. Densities of scours are highest in the inner areas of overlfow. But strudel scours also occur outside of overflow areas mapped during the last several years. These must be very old. One strudel scour investigated by diving is surrounded by a rim, has vertical walls exposing a tundra horizon, and terminates at a gravel layer 4 m below the lagoon floor. Another terminates at a semi-consolidated layer of silty clay. The gravel and silty clay are pre-Holocene deposits. Mixing of Holocene marine with older sediments by vertical strudel flow causes great variability in sediment types over small areas. These observations complicate interpretation of shallow water deposits of cold climates.