Canada Basin

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Abstract
The Canada Basin, 1,600 km long and 650 to 1,050 km wide, is an extensive area of moderately deep water lying in the Amerasia sector of the Arctic Ocean (Fig. 1 and Plate 1). Unlike many other ocean basins, it is poorly understood. The tectonic processes that formed it are thought to have played an important role in the structural development and configuration of Alaska and the northeastern USSR, and in the development of the large hydrocarbon resources that have been discovered around the margins of the basin. The borders of the Canada Basin are North America on the east and south and a complex of submarine ridges and plateaus on the north and west that may have diverse origins. The submarine ridge features include the Northwind Ridge and Chukchi Cap of the Chukchi Borderland on the southwest, and the Mendeleev and Alpha Ridges on the northwest and north respectively. Much of the basin has an extensive continental rise that slopes westward from the Canadian Arctic Islands toward the deep Canada Abyssal Plain. This abyssal plain, which underlies the western Canada Basin, is its deepest part. The Mendeleev Abyssal Plain (Fig. 1) lies to the west of the northern part of the Canada Abyssal Plain and is separated from it by a scarp 300 m to more than 500 m high. This scarp and the Northwind Escarpment (the east face of Northwind Ridge) together form the west boundary of the Canada Abyssal Plain; and their continuity may have

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