A Coast Guard cutter will embark on an Arctic voyage this week to determine the extent of the continental shelf north of Alaska and map the ocean floor, data that could be used for oil and natural gas exploration. U.S. and University of New Hampshire scientists on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy will leave Barrow, Alaska, on Thursday on a three-week journey. They will create a three-dimensional map of the Arctic Ocean floor in a relatively unexplored area known as the Chukchi borderland. The Healy will launch again on September 6, when it will be joined by Canadian scientists aboard an icebreaker, who will help collect data to determine the thickness of sediment in the region. With oil at $114 a barrel, after hitting a record $147 in July, and sea ice melting fast, countries like Russia and the U.S. are looking north for possible energy riches. “These are places nobody’s gone before, in essence, so this is a first step,” said the director of the oceanic affairs office at the U.S. State Department. She said the data collected may provide information to the public about future oil and natural gas sources for the U.S. This will be the fourth year that the U.S. has collected data to define the limits of its continental shelf in the Arctic. Source: [1] http://www.khbz.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=4082240