Name of fly-through:  Offshore

  Red line shows flight path

File Size:  186.4 Mb; web version: 5.7 Mb

Run Time: 2 minutes,  4 seconds; web version:  25 seconds

Window Size:  800 X 500 pixels; web version:   300 X 182 pixels

Vertical Exaggeration: 1.5

Flight Altitude:  1,700 meters (5,600 ft) above sea level throughout the flight path

Distance Over Ground:  213 kilometers  (65 miles)

Average Speed Over Ground: 3,000 km/hr (1,890 mph); web version: 15,000 km/hr (9,400 mph)

Description of flight:

 We begin offshore at Big Sur with a view of the multiple heads of Sur Canyon. This flight travels northward offshore along the mid- to upper-continental slope.  We are looking east (to the right) during the course of the flight. 

  The continental shelf widens here, projecting out over Sur Ridge.  The upper slope has no canyons or gullies: atypical of the Central California margin.

 Flying across Monterey Canyon, we see the trace of the San Gregorio-Hosgri fault as it crosses in a north-south direction.  A large, horseshoe-shaped scar from a slump is visible on the flank of Smooth Ridge at the north (left) side of the canyon.

  The flight finishes with a view of the Ascencion (left) and Ano Nuevo (right) canyons.  Note the structurally controlled “kink” in both canyons.  ROV dives here have shown that the rocks are of the Franciscan complex.