Scientists map canyon below Atlantic (Hudson)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_sc/sea_floor_mapping

Scientists map canyon below Atlantic

By JEFFREY GOLD, Associated Press Writer 51 minutes ago

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Although just 100 miles off the New Jersey-New York coast, the features of the Hudson Canyon have been largely hidden beneath hundreds of feet of water. Created by the Hudson River centuries ago, parts of the massive, undersea region rival the Grand Canyon in scale. Now, for the first time, scientists have a vivid picture of what the mysterious region looks like.


A four-year study using high-tech tools has produced maps that will allow scientists to study many things, including whether methane gas trapped in frozen sediment below the sea floor is escaping and exacerbating global warming.

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"This region, the Hudson Canyon, is on the doorstep of one of the largest metropolitan areas of the world, and it is an exploration frontier," Rona said as he examined the 3 1/2-by-5-foot maps at the Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences at Rutgers' Cook College campus.


........Much of the Hudson Canyon was formed during the last Ice Age, over 10,000 years ago, when the sea level was about 400 feet lower and the mouth of the Hudson River was near the edge of the continental shelf, about 100 miles east of its present site..........

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On the Net:

Hudson Canyon map: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1441/index.html