Monterey Canyon: A Grand Canyon beneath the waves

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Just 100 meters (328 feet) offshore from MBARI’s facilities in Moss Landing, CA, lies the head of Monterey Canyon, a submarine geologic feature that rivals the Grand Canyon in size and grandeur. The main channel of Monterey Canyon meanders for over 470 kilometers (292 miles) and is roughly 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) wide at its widest point. Reaching a maximum depth of 1,700 meters (5,580 feet) before eventually ending at the abyssal plain, Monterey Canyon is one of the deepest submarine canyons on the west coast of the United States.

This animation uses data collected over the past 22 years by MBARI’s mapping team to bring Monterey Canyon to life in an unprecedented level of detail. The highest-resolution animation of Monterey Canyon ever created, it uses a combination of ship-based multibeam data at 25 meters (82 feet) in resolution and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) multibeam mapping data at one meter (three feet) in resolution. MBARI scientists worked together with Frame 48, a Los Angeles-based film production company, to make these data come to life and give people a chance to see an amazing geologic feature that is otherwise invisible beneath the waves.

MBARI research has revealed that the canyon is astonishingly dynamic. Repeated mapping in certain areas of the canyon has shown that the terrain changes substantially every few months. Periodically, the build-up of sediment in the canyon head can lead to submarine landslides or turbidity currents that are similar to avalanches on land. Rather than a river of water cutting into the rocks, the resulting river of sand from these flows carve out the main channel of Monterey Canyon. This detailed data allows MBARI scientists to better understand how this incredible geologic feature impacts the myriad sea life—from bioluminescent fish to bone-eating worms to microscopic plankton—that call the canyon home. But it also allows us to understand potential risks that these geologic features pose to humans, including tsunamis that affect communities on the coast and damage to critical telecommunications infrastructure.

Studying Monterey Canyon is also critical to better understanding our climate system. As organic material on the surface decays and sinks, the canyon acts like a carbon highway, transporting those nutrients to biological communities on the deep seafloor. Monterey Canyon plays an important role in moving organic carbon from the coast to the sediments on the abyssal plain where it can be trapped for thousands or even millions of years. Researchers in locations with broad continental shelves, like the east coast of the US, oftentimes steam for 10 hours or more to reach deep-ocean sites. MBARI is incredibly fortunate to have the Monterey Canyon for a backyard as it provides unprecedented access to the deep. In just a little over two and a half hours, MBARI’s Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), the Doc Ricketts and Ventana, can explore ocean depths of more than a mile discovering and studying the myriad and often bizarre-looking creatures of the deep sea.

Less than ten percent of the seafloor has been mapped at the same level of detail as the entire dry surfaces of the Moon and Mars. MBARI’s mapping technology and datasets bring us closer to creating a clear picture of the uncharted frontier beneath the ocean’s surface.

Credits:
Senior Producers: Heidi Cullen, Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Kyra Schlining, Susan von Thun (MBARI video team)

Special thanks to Charlie Paull, Dave Caress, Eve Lundsten, and Jenny Paduan for their thoughtful guidance and for providing the data used to build this animation.

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It's amazing how many mountain ranges are hidden underwater, many higher than the mountains on land!

TimpBizkit
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Amazing stuff! Would love to see a more in-depth video of the Monterey Canyon. And I would especially like to see the area where the microphone is located for your Soundscape listening room. I really enjoy the echo's when whales are near the mic!

moonbass
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Unsurprisingly, the rolling hills reminded me of the East Foothills in the Bay Area: Pacheco Pass, Altamont Pass, etc.

tooky
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Monastery is my favorite place to dive, the right side has an incredible drop off out around 500-700’ off the beach down to well over 100+ feet. Just be careful and read the weather and the ocean cuz it can get rough enough to sink a ship out there. Not for the novice diver. Drop off comes up quick but is amazing down there, everything is big down there fish, anemones and large block slabs that look like a staircase rising up from the depths starting around 80’. Left side is sandy kelp beds and right side has the drop off. Just be careful, read the ocean and keep an eye on your dive buddy 🙂🦑🪼🐠🦈

AVSSharky
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Best aquarium in the world hands down. Keep doin what you're doin love you guys

joestrong
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The last image is awesome, how much of the ocean floor has been mapped out to this precision?

Malkovith
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I really really want to see these undersea terrain features without the vertical height exaggeration.

busybillyb
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this is all i think about when i go to moss landing

abiflo
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Great work guys! Goddess Bless from Zorba!

veiledzorba
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Are there any caves in Monterey Canyon?

StarlightPrism
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Monterey is the only place in California I’ll ever visit if I return to the state

andrewghostronin
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Was this canyon formed when the ocean was 11, 800 feet lower than it is today or are you trying to say that the canyon was formed while under sea water and other prosseses formed this canyon? Or are you trying to say that that we don't really know how this canyon was formed, the reason I ask is because it looks like a totally normal river canyon to me, the main channel goes all the way down to the deep flat spot in the abyss which you say is at 18, 800 feet, what caused that channel? To be seen all the way to that depth?

fisheyelens
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The original outlet of the inland sea that is our valley now

stenbak
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Enjoyed your video I gave it a Thumbs Up

oneshotme
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Who is the narrator? She sounds really familiar!

blujay
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So if you drop something in the canyon hood chance never found??that what y’all saying???

randylal
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Anybody know who is narrating this? Her voice sounds familiar 🤔

AVSSharky
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so a canyon can be formed under water ...as well

jmuring
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WOW that's insane‼️‼️‼️ Maybe we should concentrate on finding out all the is to know about our earth including the depths of the sea, fixing what we've arrived up out of pure greed b4 we go off destroying and raping other planets... Just a thought

marygilogley
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what do you mean lucky? it could cause a great tsunami.

carlosj.orttega
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