HR: 1340h
AN: OS43B-0563    [Abstracts]
TI: A Subbottom Profiler Survey of the Upper Monterey Canyon Using the MBARI Mapping AUV
AU: * Caress, D W
EM: caress@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Kirkwood, W J
EM: kiwi@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Thomas, H
EM: hthomas@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Sibenac, M
AF: Robotics Institute, Carnagie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 United States
AU: McEwen, R
EM: rob@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Shane, F
EM: shfa@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Henthorn, R
EM: henthorn@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: McGill, P
EM: mcgill@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Hamilton, A
EM: hamilton@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Thompson, D
EM: drthom@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AU: Salamy, K
EM: salamy@mbari.org
AF: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039 United States
AB: During the Spring and Summer of 2004, MBARI conducted subbottom profile surveys across the main, active channel of the upper Monterey Canyon and two northward trending sub-canyons that appear in swath bathymetry mapping to be mostly filled by recent sediments. Monterey Canyon is the dominant submarine physiographic feature of the Monterey Bay region, and serves as the primary conduit for sediment transport from the coast and shelf to the deep ocean seafloor. These surveys were conducted during the initial sea tests of the new MBARI Mapping Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The data were collected using an Edgetech FS-AU 2-16 kHz sweep Chirp subbottom profiler operated on the AUV at vehicle depths up to 250 m. Navigation and attitude data derived from an inertial navigation system (INS) incorporating a ring laser gyro and a 300 kHz Doppler velocity log (DVL). Good subbottom data, with typical penetrations of 0.05 seconds, were collected along 140 km of profiles covering an area roughly 3.6 km east-west by 8 km north-south. The profiles clearly show that a single, stratigraphically uninterrupted deposit of sediments has in fact filled the northward sub-canyons. Profiles crossing the main channel also reveal remnants of previous sediment infill along the canyon walls, suggesting that the entire upper Monterey Canyon may have once been filled by sediments as much as 100 m thick.
DE: 4294 Instruments and techniques
DE: 3022 Marine sediments--processes and transport
DE: 3045 Seafloor morphology and bottom photography
DE: 3094 Instruments and techniques
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting