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.