Astoria Canyon lies 20 km offshore the Columbia River, where it has evolved alongside great environmental change through the Quaternary. Recorded in its morphology and strata are the stories of the Holocene transgression, Missoula Megafloods, paleoseismicity, anthropogenic change, and more. Our lab recently began a project aimed at improving our knowledge of these past (and ongoing) changes through the study of sediment transport and deposition within Astoria Canyon.

We are currently funded through a partnership with the USGS and Quaternary Research Center under a proposal to collect and synthesize data from: 1) a benthic hydrodynamic tripod, 2) sediment cores, 3) multibeam bathymetry, and 4) CHIRP sub-bottom profiles. The initial phases of our research will focus on defining the modern sedimentary environment within the shallow canyon head, where many sediment-gravity flows begin their journey down-canyon.

Our benthic instrumented tripod awaits deployment in May, 2019.

On the morning of deployment, the tripod is moved under the A-frame for lowering.