There is perhaps no other place on Earth that is as little understood as the Arctic. Fundamental scientific questions remain unanswered, and its vast and diverse natural resources are not adequately assessed. The 1992 International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM), which convened in Anchorage, Alaska, on September 2-4, 1992, is the first of what we hope will be a series of meetings to be held in a different northern city every 2 years. The goals of the first meeting, and the underlying theme for all subsequent meetings, were to (1) understand the Arctic and (2) foster international cooperation in Arctic research.
Over the last century, systematic scientific study of the Arctic has been hampered by the natural elements, the extreme financial costs of collecting data, and limitations in technology. In addition, the world political situation has represented an imposing roadblock to studies in the Arctic. The recent changes occurring in this last area finally have made it possible for scientists of all nations to exchange ideas and data to make the study of the Arctic truly circumpolar. However, a change for the better in one realm of barriers often is met with a change for the worse in another.
Funding for research and exploration in the Arctic is becoming more scarce. For this reason, many Russian authors, who for political reasons previously were unable to present their works to the world scientific community, were not able to present their papers at the 1992 ICAM. Travel funds and money for research is almost nonexis- tent in Russia. The impact on the free exchange of information and ideas is essentially the same, whether the impediment is from politics or from economics. The lack of funding for research has placed the future of Russian science in jeopardy. But the Russians are not alone. Arctic science also is in jeopardy in the West because of budget deficits and the removal of a political rationale to support Arctic research.
The new challenge facing Arctic researchers and explorers is to cooperate, both on the intranational and international level. Today, this kind of cooperation not only is more possible, it is imperative.
The papers published in this volume were submitted for the 1992 ICAM. They are presented here in the spirit of cooperation in Arctic research and in the hope for a better understanding of the complexities of Arctic geosciences. Although the papers are all in English, they come from many of the circum-Arctic countries and cover diverse fields: from regional tectonics to Arctic dinosaur paleontology. To the Arctic Earth scientist, the language is universal. We invite you to read and enjoy these papers and to feel free to contact the authors.
In the spirit of the new openness for data exchange, the editors made the decision to accept all papers from Russian authors so that their ideas, no matter how controversial, could be presented to a western audience that they could not previously reach. In addition, to celebrate the opening of the arbitrary political line along the International Date Line, the papers have been arranged counterclockwise around the Arctic-from Norway to Russia to Alaska to Canada. The opening of this barrier also is reflected in the location of the second ICAM: Magadan, Russia, in September 1994.
The editors also made an effort, probably not wholly successful, to edit manuscripts by nonEnglish-speaking authors to make them easier to understand. In this process, we hope we have not changed any meanings and that both the letter and the spirit of the original papers have been maintained. We thank the many scientists who gave freely of their time to review these manuscripts; they are listed on page iv. Thanks also are extended to the Minerals Management Service (MMS) support staff who made this volume possible--especially to Ida Menge, who redrafted several figures; to Bill Chambers for his work on the cover; and to the MMS technical editors who worked on this project.
The Editors:
Dennis K. Thurston
Kazuya Fujita
Special Thanks to BOEM, Alaska Region for Hosting this Site