Authors
Thomas D Lorenson, Peter W Swarzenski, Katherine L Maier, Roberto Gwiazda, Charles K Paull, Esther Sumner, William Owen Symons
Publication date
2015/12
Journal
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Volume
2015
Pages
EP41B-0929
Description
Submarine canyons are a major conduit for terrestrial material to the deep sea. To better constrain the timing and rates in which sediment is transported down-canyon, we collected a series of sediment cores along the axis of Monterey Canyon, and quantified mass accumulation rates using short-lived radio-isotopes. A suite of sediment cores were carefully collected perpendicular to the canyon thalweg in water depths of approximately 300m, 500m, 800m, and 1500m using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV). We choose cores that were between 60m and 75m above the canyon thalweg on canyon side bench features for correlation with moored instrument deployments. The sediment cores reveal a complex stratigraphy that includes copious bioturbation features, sand lenses, subtle erosional surfaces, subtle graded bedding, and abrupt changes sediment texture and color. Downcore excess 210Pb and 137Cs …
Scholar articles