Monterey Canyon: A Grand Canyon beneath the waves
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ส.ค. 2020
- 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.
Learn more about Monterey Canyon: www.mbari.org/science/seafloo...
Credits:
Senior Producers: Heidi Cullen, Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Kyra Schlining, Susan von Thun (MBARI video team)
Animation created by: Frame 48 frame48.com/
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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LinkdIn: / monterey-bay-aquarium-... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I miss Monterey and Moss Landing ❤️
It's amazing how many mountain ranges are hidden underwater, many higher than the mountains on land!
Unsurprisingly, the rolling hills reminded me of the East Foothills in the Bay Area: Pacheco Pass, Altamont Pass, etc.
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!
Best aquarium in the world hands down. Keep doin what you're doin love you guys
I really really want to see these undersea terrain features without the vertical height exaggeration.
Nice dear
this is all i think about when i go to moss landing
The last image is awesome, how much of the ocean floor has been mapped out to this precision?
Great work guys! Goddess Bless from Zorba!
That's fokken incredible!
Are there any caves in Monterey Canyon?
The original outlet of the inland sea that is our valley now
Thanks for using metric.
fuck metric.
McOS
Holy shit..
Monterey is the only place in California I’ll ever visit if I return to the state
So if you drop something in the canyon hood chance never found??that what y’all saying???
Enjoyed your video I gave it a Thumbs Up
Oii bruv I live there yee
Speak in feet and miles
Who is the narrator? She sounds really familiar!
That's our Director of Communications Heidi Cullen!
@@MBARIvideo I thought she sounded familiar too- a little like felicity huffman
At first I thought it was Holly Hunter (Mrs. Incredible/Elastigirl). Heidi Cullen has an amazing voice!
so a canyon can be formed under water ...as well
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?
h