Chukchi Sea Shelf

The Chukchi Sea Shelf or Chukchi Shelf is the easternmost part of the Continental shelf of Russia and the westernmost part of the Continental shelf of the United States. Geologically, it includes parts of the continental shelves adjacent to Russia, so that large sections of the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas of the Chukchi Shelf are under US sovereignty.

The main geological features of the Chukchi Shelf are the Hope Basin and the Herald Thrust, a basement uplift cored by Cretaceous thrust faults. The latter is named after Herald Island. Off the northwestern Alaskan coast there is a Jurassic rift basin, the Hannah Trough. In the north the Chukchi Shelf is limited by the Arctic Ocean geological zone.

The Chukchi Shelf is shared between Russia and the United States according to the 1990 USA-USSR maritime boundary.

References

• Geology: [1]
• Organic carbon nutrients on the Chukchi Sea Shelf: [2]
• Circulation of the Chukchi shelf bottom water: [3]