Monterey canyon is really one of the the great submarine
canyons of the world. It runs out over 470
kilometers meandering all the way out into the deep abyss.
If you drained the Monterey canyon it would look very similar to the Grand
Canyon with meandering channel with high steep walls and sand deposits in the
middle of the channel. We know the surface of other planets
better than we know the surface of the earth
in the deep ocean. And for the most part it's true because it's so much harder.
The ocean is in the way.
I think this animation allows the public to get a sense
of the grand scale of Monterey canyon and to start to see
and appreciate this massive feature that's right in our backyard.
Every time we go out we're mapping something that
that hasn't been mapped before we're seeing things that haven't been seen
before. We're exploring. We get to explore. We want to understand
how Monterey canyon formed. If when and how
it's changing over time and the maps are the first step to
beginning understanding those processes. We map at a meter scale or meter
resolution. We fly the AUVs at a 50 meter altitude
and we're using this multi-beam sonar that
pings three times a second and every time it pings it gets a
set of soundings a set of depth measurements. Every one of those
soundings has a footprint that's just about a meter across
and that's why we say it's it's meter scale mapping, if we have a feature
that's about a meter in size we will actually see it in our map.
So when we can map the sea floor at this one meter resolution
we can start to see and understand faults, unique biological
habitat, we can start to begin to understand what
processes are occurring in the canyons and how
sediment is being transported across our globe.
With this fly through you're seeing the data from the
AUVs, you come here and we'll just stop it right there and you see those
those bands there this is a glacier of sand that actually
moves really fast and really suddenly and then stops
and leaves behind these these features.
Submarine canyons like Monterey canyon form the the most important conduits
of material from the continents to the abyss.
Moving material from land to the abyss you're moving carbon
all around the world it's a huge part of the carbon cycle.
And so here we have an opportunity to study these active
processes, but they're globally important they're not just important here
in coastal California.