The Hinlopen Strait and Trough (Fig. 1) form a strikingly linear NW-SE feature, extending from Svalbard across the shelf and onto the Arctic Sea slope. Maximum water depths exceed 400111, but a number of sills, some presumably structural and others sedimentary. divide the strait/trough into a series of basins. Acoustically transparent sediment, which locally is thicker than 60 m in some basins, is probably late Quaternary in age, The upper 1-5m are Holocene, and were probably influenced by Atlantic water from the Arctic extension of the West Spitsbergen Current.