High-tech “smart boulders” give the first look from inside an underwater landslide
April 6, 2022 – Motion-sensing “smart boulders” have provided new insight about the powerful sediment gravity flows that barrel down Monterey Canyon.
canyon dynamics
Measuring the maelstrom
July 25, 2019 – A new paper shows how strong currents carry sand-sized particles 50 kilometers down Monterey Canyon.
A new conceptual model for turbidity currents
October 5, 2018 – A new paper shows that currents in submarine canyons often involve large-scale movement of the seafloor. This discovery could help ocean engineers avoid damage to pipelines, communications cables, and other seafloor structures.
Large underwater experiment shows that “turbidity currents” involve movement of the seafloor
October 5, 2018 – A new paper shows that currents in submarine canyons often involve large-scale movement of the seafloor. This discovery could help ocean engineers avoid damage to pipelines, communications cables, and other seafloor structures.
Charles Paull receives Francis P. Shepard medal
Aug 1, 2018 – The Society for Sedimentary Geology recently awarded MBARI Geologist Charles Paull the Francis P. Shepard medal for marine geology.
Multi-year submarine-canyon study challenges textbook theories about turbidity currents
December 11, 2017 – Results of the Coordinated Canyon Experiment presented at the Fall 2017 meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Monterey Canyon: A Grand Canyon beneath the waves
Monterey Canyon is one of the deepest submarine canyons on the west coast of the United States.
Signs of a turbidity event in Monterey Canyon
Jan 21, 2016 – On Friday, January 15, an event on the floor of Monterey Canyon triggered two sediment transport event detectors. A few days later, a benthic event detector, originally deployed at a depth of 200 meters in the canyon, drifted ashore in Santa Cruz.
Coordinated Canyon Experiment
The Coordinated Canyon Experiment (CCE), promises to give scientists a uniquely detailed and comprehensive view of sediment movement within the canyon
International experiment tracks underwater avalanches in Monterey Canyon
Oct 15, 2015 – Underwater avalanches and turbidity currents carry huge amounts of sediment, organic material, and pollutants down submarine canyons and into the deep sea. Yet geologists know very little about how sediment moves during these events.
MBARI engineers create “smart boulders” to understand how sand moves in submarine canyons
Oct 15, 2015 – Submarine canyons are notoriously difficult to study because underwater avalanches periodically surge down the bottoms of many canyons, often burying or destroying scientific instruments.
Instruments used in the Coordinated Canyon Experiment
Oct 15, 2015 – Submarine canyons are notoriously difficult to study because underwater avalanches periodically surge down the bottoms of many canyons, often burying or destroying scientific instruments. After more than a decade of placing (and sometimes losing) equipment in Monterey Canyon, MBARI researchers have created a unique new tool to study canyon processes.
Continental Margins and Canyon Dynamics
We are studying the Monterey Canyon using multiple techniques that provide data similar to what is used to understand dynamic processes in terrestrial river channels.
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About MBARI
Research programs at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) encompass the entire ocean, from the surface waters to the deep seafloor, and from the coastal zone to the open sea. The need to understand the ocean in all its complexity and variability drives MBARI's research and development efforts.