The Commander Basin (alternately Komandorsky Basin) is located between the Shirshov Ridge and the

Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

. Its southern boundary is the Aleutian arc (see figure) and occupies the western part of the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...

. The Kamchatka Strait provides a deep water access to the basin from the southwest. The basins

sedimentary Sedimentary rocks are types of rock formed by the cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedime ...

cover is less than 2 km thick. In the southwestern portion of the basin near the Ulakahn Fault, linear magnetic anomalies associated with the

Early Miocene The Early Miocene (also known as Lower Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages: the Aquitanian age, Aquitanian and Burdigalian stages. The sub-epoch lasted from 23.03 ± 0.05 annum, Ma to ...

have been identified. The magnetic anomalies support a sequential opening of the Commander Basin resulting from stresses on the interface between the Eurasian and Pacific plates. The structures of the Bering Sea floor at the Commander Basin were created 17 to 21 Million years before the present. The Commander Basin floor is a horizontal plain 3800–3900 m deep. It is covered with 2000–6000 m of sediment overlying an oceanic crust which is 12–14 km thick. Active spreading in the Commander Basin occurred between 40 and 10 Myr ago, with subduction of the basin floor along the Ulakhan fault underneath the Kamchatka peninsula. There are four major fracture zones in the basin and magnetic lineations have been detected in the basin. Except in the southern end of the basin, the spreading center has been subducted. The water in the basin circulates in a cyclonic

gyre In oceanography, a gyre () is any large system of ocean surface currents moving in a circular fashion driven by wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity, horizontal friction and vertical friction determine the ...

, with the western Kamchatka Current flowing southward along the Kamchatka Peninsula. The northward leg of the gyre is outside of the Commander Basin, and is carried by the Bering Slope Current, which flows along the edge of the continental shelf at the eastern edge of the

Aleutian Basin The Aleutian Basin is an oceanic basin located beneath the southwestern Bering Sea. While the northeastern half of the Bering Sea is situated over the North American Plate in relatively shallow waters, the Aleutian Basin comprises an oceanic pl ...

. To the south, the Commander Basin connects to the North Pacific through the 4.4 km wide, 4,420 meter deep Kamchatka Strait and the 2.0 km wide, 2,000 meter deep Near Strait.M.S. Cook, L.D. Keigwin, C.A. Sancetta; The deglacial history of surface and intermediate water of the Bering Sea; Deep-Sea Research Part II; Volume 52 (2005) pp. 2163–2173

References

{{coord, 57, 27, N, 166, 35, E, type:landmark_region:XP_dim:1000000, display=title Oceanic basins of the Pacific Ocean Landforms of the Bering Sea