The origin of the Bering Sea Basin remains elusive. It is still not resolved if the basin formed by plate capture or backarc spreading. On the German R/V Sonne cruises SO201/1b-2 KALMAR in 2009 and SO249/1-2 BERING in 2016, combined with fieldwork on the Komandorsky Islands, our studies of the southern (Aleutian) and western(Kamchatka to Chukotka) margins of the Bering Sea and of the Bowers and Shirshov Ridges have provided new insights into the complex origin of the Bering marginal basin..
