Relationship between vessel speed and sounds levels in the Bering Strait

AbstractUnprecedented quantities of heat are entering the Pacific sector of the Arctic Ocean through Bering Strait, particularly during summer months. Though some heat is lost to the atmosphere during autumn cooling, a significant fraction of the incoming warm, salty water subducts (dives beneath) below a cooler fresher layer of near-surface water, subsequently extending hundreds of kilometers into the Beaufort Gyre. Upward turbulent mixing of these sub-surface pockets of heat is likely accelerating sea ice melt in the region. This Pacific-origin water brings both heat and unique biogeochemical properties, contributing to a changing Arctic ecosystem. However, our ability to understand or forecast the role of this incoming water mass has been hampered by lack of understanding of the physical processes controlling subduction and evolution of this this warm water. Crucially, the processes seen here occur at small horizontal scales not resolved by regional forecast models or climate simulations; new parameterizations must be developed that accurately represent the physics. Here we present novel high resolution observations showing the detailed process of subduction and initial evolution of warm Pacific-origin water in the southern Beaufort Gyre.

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Voyaging towards the future: the brig Rurik in the North Pacific and the emerging science of the sea

The British Journal for the History of Science ◽

10.1017/s0007087420000448 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-27

Author(s):

ALEXANDRA BEKASOVA

Keyword(s):

North Pacific ◽

Bering Strait ◽

Journal Articles ◽

Complex Interplay ◽

Global Networks ◽

Scientific Investigations ◽

Knowledge Based ◽

The North ◽

Private Correspondence ◽

The North Pacific

Abstract This article explores the networking activities of Count Nikolai Rumiantsev and Adam von Krusenstern, his close collaborator. The visionary Russian statesman and the celebrated navigator were deeply involved in northern exploration. They funded and organized a circumnavigating voyage by the brig Rurik in 1815–18, with the explicit goals of searching for a northern passage between Eurasia and North America and conducting a series of scientific investigations in the Bering Strait region. This private exploratory enterprise profoundly influenced the exchange of information and reconfigured both local and global networks of knowledge. Based on an analysis of private correspondence, printed accounts and journal articles related to the Rurik's expedition, this study sheds light on how this transnational network of actors emerged and functioned, and how it promoted a lively circulation of information about exploration in the Bering Strait region in the 1810s–1820s. I argue that a complex interplay of geopolitical and intellectual competition, with exchanges, collaborations and coordination among various actors (e.g. patrons, navigators, scholars, entrepreneurs and publishers), stimulated further research on the global ocean's northern spaces and laid the foundations of marine science.

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Arctic Ocean stratification set by sea level and freshwater inputs since the last ice age

Nature Geoscience ◽

10.1038/s41561-021-00789-y ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jesse R. Farmer ◽

Daniel M. Sigman ◽

Julie Granger ◽

Ona M. Underwood ◽

François Fripiat ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Arctic Ocean ◽

Surface Waters ◽

Ice Age ◽

The Arctic ◽

Bering Strait ◽

Central Arctic Ocean ◽

Phytoplankton Productivity ◽

Nitrate Consumption ◽

Western Arctic ◽

Last Ice Age

AbstractSalinity-driven density stratification of the upper Arctic Ocean isolates sea-ice cover and cold, nutrient-poor surface waters from underlying warmer, nutrient-rich waters. Recently, stratification has strengthened in the western Arctic but has weakened in the eastern Arctic; it is unknown if these trends will continue. Here we present foraminifera-bound nitrogen isotopes from Arctic Ocean sediments since 35,000 years ago to reconstruct past changes in nutrient sources and the degree of nutrient consumption in surface waters, the latter reflecting stratification. During the last ice age and early deglaciation, the Arctic was dominated by Atlantic-sourced nitrate and incomplete nitrate consumption, indicating weaker stratification. Starting at 11,000 years ago in the western Arctic, there is a clear isotopic signal of Pacific-sourced nitrate and complete nitrate consumption associated with the flooding of the Bering Strait. These changes reveal that the strong stratification of the western Arctic relies on low-salinity inflow through the Bering Strait. In the central Arctic, nitrate consumption was complete during the early Holocene, then declined after 5,000 years ago as summer insolation decreased. This sequence suggests that precipitation and riverine freshwater fluxes control the stratification of the central Arctic Ocean. Based on these findings, ongoing warming will cause strong stratification to expand into the central Arctic, slowing the nutrient supply to surface waters and thus limiting future phytoplankton productivity.

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A Precolumbian Presence of Venetian Glass Trade Beads in Arctic Alaska

American Antiquity ◽

10.1017/aaq.2020.100 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Michael L. Kunz ◽

Robin O. Mills

Keyword(s):

Neutron Activation Analysis ◽

Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis ◽

Western Hemisphere ◽

Eastern Coast ◽

Great Lakes Region ◽

Late Prehistoric ◽

Bering Strait ◽

Eurasian Continent ◽

Arctic Alaska ◽

The Caribbean

Excavation at three Late Prehistoric Eskimo sites in arctic Alaska has revealed the presence of Venetian glass trade beads in radiocarbon-dated contexts that predate Columbus's discovery of the Western Hemisphere. The bead variety, commonly known as “Early Blue” and “Ichtucknee Plain,” has been confirmed by expert examination and comparative Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). The beads are present in sites throughout the Caribbean, the eastern coast of Central and North America, and the eastern Great Lakes region, where they are commonly found in sites dating between approximately AD 1550 and 1750, although a diminishing presence continues into the early 1800s. Beads of this variety have not previously been reported from Alaska. Ascribed to Venetian production by their precolumbian age, the beads challenge the currently accepted chronology for the development of their production methodology, availability, and presence in the Americas. In the absence of trans-Atlantic communication, the most likely route these beads traveled from Europe to northwestern Alaska is across Eurasia and over the Bering Strait. This is the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the Western Hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent.

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A Carved Stone from D'Arcy, Saskatchewan

American Antiquity ◽

10.2307/275203 ◽

1940 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 334-335

Author(s):

Vladimar Alfred Vigfusson

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Late Pleistocene ◽

Glacial Lake ◽

Bering Strait ◽

The North ◽

Gravel Pit ◽

North Bank ◽

The Town

In recent years, the attention of some archaeologists has been directed to the Canadian Northwest with the expectation of finding some evidence or indication of the early migrations of man on this continent. That man reached North America by Bering Strait from Asia, is generally accepted, but the theory that the migrations took place in late Pleistocene times and by way of an open corridor between the Keewatin ice and the Rockies, requires confirmation. It is significant that Folsom and Yuma points from Saskatchewan, described by E. B. Howard, were found mainly in areas bordering the ancient glacial Lake Regina.As a further contribution to this problem, it seems desirable to present a brief description of a carved stone relic found in gravel in central Saskatchewan about three years ago.The stone was found about seven miles southeast of the town of D'Arcy in a gravel pit located on Sec. 9, Tp. 28, Rge. 18, W. 3rd Meridian, on the north bank of a ravine running east into Bad Lake.

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