Exploring the Origin of the Bering Sea: Initial Results of Cruise SO249-2 (17th July – 13th August 2016)

The Bering Sea is one of the largest marginal seas on Earth with still poorly understood origin and evolution. Cruise SO249-2 of the German research vessel Sonne explored the western half of Bering Sea by multibeam mapping, sediment profiling and dredge sampling in the framework of the joint German-Russian-U.S. American project BERING. Focus areas were A) the Chukotka-Beringian margins, once the possible site of Cretaceous arc volcanism prior to Eocene initiation of the Aleutian arc, B) the enigmatic Shirshov Ridge, separating the Komandorsky from the Aleutian Basin, C) Beta Rise, an area of anomalous high heat flow in the Komandorsky basin, D) the Volcanlogists Massif and adjacent volcanic and tectonic structures and E) the Komandorsky block, the westernmost section of the modern arc......