Sand Wave Migrations Within Monterey Submarine Canyon, California

Repeated high-resolution multi-beam surveys revealed the existence of a sand wave field along the axis of the Monterey submarine canyon between 20 and 300 m water depth. These sand waves range in wave length from 20 to 70 m and 2 to 5 m in height. Comparison of sequential multi-beam grid data (months apart) indicates that the sand waves apparently migrate upcanyon at some places while the same data clearly show that the sand waves migrate downcanyon at other locations. One hypothesis is that strong internal tidal flows, whose upcanyon component is intensified by the narrow canyon, are responsible for forming the sand wave field and for migrating the sand waves upcanyon. Another hypothesis is that the sand wave field is formed by creeping (analogous to the movement within glaciers), and in general they move in the downcanyon direction. A field experiment was conducted in 2005-06 to measure the driving forces (in hypothesis #1) that form and move the sand waves, and to collect the internal sedimentological structure within the sand waves that could reveal information on hypothesis #2. A mooring designed to measure near-floor velocity profiles, temperature, salinity, and sediment concentration in the water column was deployed for one year (June 2005 -July 2006) at 250 m water depth, slightly downcanyon of the sand wave field. In addition, a mapping survey was conducted in February, 2006 for collecting multi-beam and chirp profiles in the canyon head area of the sand wave field. Preliminary examination of the ADCP (downward looking) showed some very interesting features - the near- floor current dramatically changes with the spring-neap cycle of the surface tide. The time variation of the along-canyon current during neap tides - a sudden jump of upcanyon velocity before gradually tapering down, is typical of internal tides (internal bores). The time variation during spring tides when along canyon velocities reverse directions from upcanyon to downcanyon and gradually ramp up the speed before suddenly shutting down, is almost the mirror opposite of the neap tide pattern. Strong flow asymmetries exist during both spring and neap tides, with much stronger semi-diurnal currents directed upcanyon during neap and larger pulses of current at diurnal frequency pointing downcanyon during spring tides. In this presentation, we will attempt to explain the sand wave migration with the hydrodynamic data from the mooring.