The labs are situated adjacent to the Monterey submarine canyon, and not coincidentally, within the very active San Andreas Fault zone on the central California coast. Monterey Canyon offers extraordinary opportunities to study submarine canyons and deep-water processes. It is one of the largest submarine canyons along the west coast of the United States and is almost as big as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. Monterey Canyon was initially formed over 10 million years ago in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, about 144 kilometers south of its present location. The canyon, along with the entire Monterey Bay region, has been transported northward along the San Andreas fault zone on a sliver of granitic rock, known as the Salinian Block. During this transport the Monterey Canyon was filled and exhumed many times. The stresses and strains of tectonic movement created faults and folds which deformed the Salinian Block and shaped the meanders of the dramatic canyon.

Much is still unknown about Monterey Canyon, including the active processes that continue to change it. Several students at MLML are working to define the canyon’s morphology and influences on the coastal marine environment; others are studying sediment transport to develop a model for submarine canyon erosion. These investigations are being done in cooperation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) with their Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Ventana. Video observations and sediment cores from the canyon axis are revealing a canyon that is active, but much quieter than it was during the Pleistocene time. Then, sea level was lower and sediments were coarser. Today it appears that finer-grained sediments, along with pesticides and other pollutants from shore are being transported down the canyon.

The San Andreas fault system, a zone of active faults that separate the Pacific Plate from the North American Plate, offers dramatic evidence of active geological processes, and tremendous opportunities for their study. Students and faculty are investigating how various geological processes affect such things as dredge disposals, submarine landslides, and hydrocarbon seeps.