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Large Submarine Canyons
Of the United States Outer Continental Shelf
About this Atlas
The purpose of this Atlas is to facilitate improved environmental management of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) by developing one depository of maps and information on major submarine canyons of the OCS. This Atlas provides the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) with geospatial and resource information to assist in the preparation of environmental documents. To accomplish this, submarine canyons were inventoried and delineated using a methodology consistent with terrestrial watershed mapping. A criteria-based algorithm generated spatial polygons used to calculate canyon slope, length, and depth. A concurrent literature review was conducted, which provided the notable facts seen in the Atlas
Atlantic Submarine Canyons
01 / 10
1
HEEZEN AND NYGREN CANYONS
2
OCEANOGRAPHER CANYON SYSTEM
3
HYDROGRAPHER CANYON
4
VEATCH CANYON
5
HUDSON AND ATLANTIC 2 CANYONS
6
ATLANTIC 3 CANYON
7
WILMINGTON CANYON AND BALTIMORE CANYON SYSTEM
8
NORFOLK CANYON SYSTEM
9
THE POINT (HATTERAS MIDDLE SLOPE)
10
KELLER, HATTERAS, ATLANTIC 4 AND PAMLICO CANYONS
Heezen Canyon
Area 588 sq km | Length 32 km | Depth Min 88 m | Depth Max 2,299 m
Heezen Canyon has been described as a narrow and deeply incised canyon with floor substrates characterized as muddy to sandy ripple-marked with minor consolidated clay outcrops. Exposures of limestone and calcareous sandstone were described as cliff- like, including a 70 m high cliff of white chalk in the canyon axis. Canyon walls aresteep and mud covered, with complex terrain of mud ridges, steep gullies, and some exposed bedrock outcrops and occasional glacial erratics (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Outcrops in the deeper regions of Heezen Canyon are most likely of Late Cretaceous to Eocene age; shallow areas are closer to Miocene-age (Quattrini et al. 2015).
Evidence of sediment transport by bottom currents has been observed in Heezen Canyon by sediment waves and sediment scour around the bases of larger debris blocks (Quattrini et al. 2015). Evidence of high current flow in certain areas where ripple bed forms were clearly visible in the sediment surface was discovered in 2013 (NOAA 2013).
In August 2013, the NOAA Okeanos Explorer discovered at least 13 species of coral attached to the vertical face or on small rocks at the top of the canyon slope. An underwater "forest" of Paragorgia, Primona, and Paramuriccea corals,seven or more feet high and probably hundreds of years old were observed in Heezen Canyon. Several species of fishes were also observed including offshore hake. Several shark egg cases were found on several types of coral in Heezen Canyon.
Heezen Canyon
ROV D2 inspecting a large block of mudstone displaced from the wall of Heezen Canyon.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.
Nygren Canyon
Area 2,680 sq km | Length 138 km | Depth Min 114 m | Depth Max 4,217 m
Nygren Canyon is approximately 40 miles northeast of the Oceanographer Canyon System.
The canyon walls are suggested to be highly stable due to the presence of Fe-Mn oxide coating and heavy colonization of attached fauna (Quattrini et al. 2015, Chaytor et al. 2016).
Quattrini et al. (2015) documented a living chemosynthetic community in Nygren Canyon at a depth of 1,560 m. This study also found that this canyon was highest in species richness when compared to some other canyons in the region.As part of the Northeast U.S. Canyons Expeditions 2013, 27 species of coral were identified in Nygren Canyon from a single ROV dive (NRDC 2014). Shark egg cases were also observed in Nygren Canyon (NRDC 2014).
Nygren Canyon is part of the Frank R. Lautenberg Deep Sea Coral Protection Area.
Nygren Canyon
The marvelous giant bamboo fan, Jasonisis, from Nygren Canyon.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.
Oceanographer Canyon System
Area 6,702 sq km | Length 139 km | Depth Min 93 m | Depth Max 3,817 m
Oceanographer Canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon (more than 2,000 m deep). The maximum water depth within the entire Oceanographer Canyon system is more than 3,800 m.
Canyons within the Oceanographer System are known to have a high abundance of fauna, including numerous deep-water corals. A 2013 survey observed a high abundance of fauna living on the underside of ledges, including bivalves, cup corals, squat lobsters, and sponges (Quattrini et al. 2015).
In Gilbert Canyon, black corals were discovered for the first time in this area (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Lydonia, Oceanographer, and Gilbert Canyons are included in the first and only National Marine Monument to be designated in the Atlantic Ocean (81 FR 65161). In addition, Lydonia, Oceanographer, and Gilbert Canyons are combined into a single HAPC based on its unique geomorphology and the presence of deep sea corals in each canyon known as the Lautenberg Protection area (81 FR 90246).
Oceanographer Canyon System
Pyramid-like structures on the seafloor of Oceanographer Canyon seen during Dive 07 of the Deep Connections 2019 expedition.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep Connections 2019.
Hydrographer Canyon
Area 4,854 sq km | Length 228 km | Depth Min 95 m | Depth Max 4,284 m
Siliciclastic and carbonate-rich lithologic sequences are prevalent in Hydrographer Canyon. Massive to thinly layered gray mudstones/siltstones, and white, pitted and striated, layered/chalk carbonate-rich rocks were also observed here (Quattrini et al. 2015).
Outcrops in Hydrographer Canyon are most likely of Late Cretaceous to Eocene age (Quattrini et al. 2015).
The NE U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013 characterized a variety of biota in Hydrographer Canyon including eels, cod, dogfish, flounder, crab, corals, sponges, mollusks, shrimps, and cephalopods (NOAA 2013)
Quattrini et al. (2015) described that marine litter was encountered on 81% of all dives along the continental margin off the northeastern United States. Litter included derelict fishing gear and other human debris such as balloons, cans, bottles, and plastic bags. Remnants of a balloon wrapped around a dead coral skeleton was observed in Hydrographer Canyon.
This canyon is designated as a Habitat Area of Particular Concern (HAPC) based on its unique geomorphology and the presence of deep sea corals (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Hydrographer Canyon
A large toppled Paragorgia or bubblegum coral colony was observed in Hydrographer Canyon. The red lasers (red dots in the photo) are 10 centimeters apart and are used for scale and age estimates.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Northeast U.S. Canyons Expedition 2013.
Veatch Canyon
Area 5,008 sq km | Length 261 km | Depth Min 108 m | Depth Max 4,517 m
Seismic profiles indicate Veatch Canyon has an erosional origin; however, its lower continental slope indicates formation by depositional processes (Forde 1981). Veatch canyon's formation has been linked to glacial outwash from the George's Bank area (Forde 1981).
Quattrini et al. 2015 frequently observed some species of sea pens and bamboo coral on the channel floor of Veatch Canyon. Bubbles were also observed escaping from the seafloor at Veatch Canyon. This, along with the species found here, suggest that Veatch Canyon contains cold seeps. Deep sea mussels (Bathymodiolus spp.) were the dominant seep species found in Veatch Canyon. Five species of coral were observed attached to carbonate blocks surrounding the live mussel bed at Veatch Seeps. A NOAA survey conducted in July 2012 identified high abundances of paramuricid corals along with solitary hard corals and various sponges living on the canyon walls (NEFMC and NMFS 2017). American lobsters also use this canyon (Cooper and Uzman 1971).
South of Veatch Canyon in water depths approximately 4,000 m, a possible shipwreck has been identified. Although uncharted, it is believed to be a cargo ship that sunk around 1942 (NOAA 2019).
This canyon has been designated as a “Tilefish Gear Restricted Area” and is closed to vessels with bottom-tending mobile gear, such as trawls, seines, and dredges (50 CFR 648.297).
Veatch Canyon
A dense community of corals and sponges, including cupcorals, Acanthogorgia sp. octocorals, and Lophelia pertusa hard corals, were seen towards the end of a dive at Veatch Canyon.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deep Connections 2019
Atlantic 2 Canyon
Area 618 sq km | Length 120 km | Depth Min 2,980 m | Depth Max 4,054 m
Atlantic 2 Canyon runs almost parallel to the southern portion of Hudson Canyon and is approximately 15 km east.
Atlantic 2 Canyon
Hudson Canyon
Area 7,369 sq km | Length 348 km | Depth Min 63 m | Depth Max 4,317 m
Hudson Canyon is the largest submarine canyon on the U.S. Atlantic continental margin. It begins in the outer continental shelf in about 100 m of water and extends seaward to water depths of more than 4,000 m. The total across-slope length is approximately 270 km (Covault et al. 2011). The Hudson Shelf Valley is a 185 km long, 20 to 30 m deep trough on the continental shelf that connects the canyon to the mouth of the Hudson River where it discharges into the New York Harbor (Diercks et al. 2010 | Lentz et al. 2014).
Hardbottom areas have been identified along the floor of Hudson Canyon, as well as pock-mark fields associated with methane release from sediments (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Along the canyon walls near the head of Hudson Canyon, the strata are believed to be of Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene age (Butman et al. 2006).
Sediment transport in Hudson Canyon is primarily driven by tidal currents, internal waves, and storms (Pierdomenico et al. 2017).
While macrofaunal composition within the canyon did not differ substantially from adjacent slope communities, observations of surface chlorophyll values and catch data indicate the canyon may play a role in enhancing fisheries on the surrounding slope.
Hudson Canyon
View of Hudson Canyon, a shelf-indenting submarine canyon on the U.S. Atlantic Margin offshore New York. The transect demonstrates the width and relief of the canyon, with the Empire State Building for scale.
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Atlantic 3 Canyon
Area 4,905 sq km | Length 233 km | Depth Min 2,942 m | Depth Max 4,447 m
Atlantic 3 canyon is located about 333 km east of Chesapeake Channel in Virginia, and is possibly an extension of Baltimore Canyon System to the WNW.
There have been four shipwrecks identified adjacent to the Atlantic 3 Canyon edges. Though they are uncharted, two schooners have been identified along with two cargo ships in water depths ranging from 3,300 to 4,000 m (NOAA 2019).
Atlantic 3 Canyon
Wilmington Canyon
Area 403 sq km | Length 71 km | Depth Min 88 m | Depth Max 2,751 m
Wilmington Canyon is located approximately 120 km southeast of Delaware Bay and extends approximately 19 km landward of the shelf edge (Obelcz et al. 2014).Wilmington Canyon is fairly well incised into the shelf and when including its extension into the continental rise, is the second largest canyon in the Northeastern United States. When compared to Hudson Canyon, Wilmington Canyon has about two thirds of the vertical relief (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Canyon cross sections are mostly U-shaped headward of the axial bend and V-shaped seaward of the bend (Obelcz et al. 2014). The upper continental margin south of Wilmington Canyon is dissected by numerous valleys and tributaries and a gully system that feeds into South Wilmington and North Heyes canyons (Kuenzel 2011).The walls of the tributaries are steep, with narrow gullies, some of which also exhibit hanging valleys at their confluences with tributary canyons. Offshore of the axial bend, the sidewalls adjacent to the canyon axis contain evidence for mass wasting, including landslide scarps and scalloped slopes (Obelcz et al. 2014).
The Wilmington Canyon has been identified as a HAPC based on its unique geomorphology and the presence of deep sea corals (NEFMC and NMFS 2017).
Gulf of Mexico Submarine Canyons
01 / 02
1
MISSISSIPPI AND DE SOTO CANYONS
2
PERDIDO, ALAMINOS, AND KEATHLEY CANYONS
De Soto Canyon
Area 4,469 sq km | Length 141 km | Depth Min 306 m | Depth Max 2,573 m
It is thought that the De Soto Canyon is fundamentally an expansive, gently sloped, geomorphic indention in the trend of the west Florida and north Florida shelves. As a result, the De Soto Canyon represents a modern, but incompletely filled in western portion of the Jurassic South Georgia Rift Basin (Hine et al. 2013). De Soto Canyon contains a complex series of smaller canyons created by erosive events that accommodated transfer of sedimentary material from the upper slope or even the outer shelf to the base of the De Soto Canyon embayment, which contribute sediment to its ultimate infill sometime in the far future. De Soto Canyon controls modern shelf width, in that the shelf is 25 km wide at the head of the canyon and widens to over 100 km farther away either to the west or east from this bathymetric deep (Hine and Locker 2011). Hardground structures occur on the western rim of the canyon (Benson et al. 1997). Reef-like mounds are found along the western rim of the De Soto Canyon ranging from 10-70 m wide, up to 4 m high and are found at depths of 70-80 m (Schroeder and Woods 2000)
De Soto canyon is thought to have formed in the Late Cretaceous period, and although its exact formation is uncertain, recent studies indicate the topographically induced eddies shed off the Loop Current may have contributed to the modern-day shape (Dunn 2016).
De Soto Canyon
Bamboo corals (with an attached crinoid) on a scarp wall in the De Soto Canyon area (2,055 meters depth)
Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Mississippi Canyon
Area 3,924 sq km | Length 136 km | Depth Min 41 m | Depth Max 1,452 m
The Mississippi canyon is the dominant morphological feature in the central Gulf of Mexico and is approximately 285 km in length across the slope (Covault et al. 2011).
Mississippi Canyon has a slightly concave longitudinal profile and sits on a passive continental shelf margin. Sediment in the canyon is mud rich (Covault et al. 2011). Gas hydrates occur within the canyon (McGee et al. 2009)
The origin of Mississippi Canyon is generally attributed to channel entrenchment of the Mississippi River during low stands of sea level and erosion of the more distal parts by turbidity currents or submarine gravity flows (Coleman et al. 1982). Sediments from the canyon have buried the Sigsbee Escarpment in this area.
Mississippi Canyon
This large Madrepora coral was a common site at Mississippi Canyon. Note the Primnoa coral in the lower left foreground
Image courtesy of University of Alabama and NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research..
Keathley Canyon
Area 3,006 sq km | Length 137 km | Depth Min 715 m | Depth Max 3,346 m
The canyon can be divided into two morphologically contrasting parts (1) the upper canyon, consisting of a narrow valley, and (2) the lower canyon, consisting of a broad reentrant. Unlike most other canyon systems, it contains no levees, tributary valleys, distributaries, nor the expected sedimentary fan at its mouth.
Keathley Canyon incises the Sigsbee Escarpment at the eastern margin of the Perdido Fold belt and the western margin of the Keathley-Walker foldbelt. Little has been published on the Keathley-Walker fold belt because it is obscured by the Sigsbee salt canopy (Hudec et al. 2013).
Lee et al. (1992) describes the origin of Keathley Canyon as beginning by underlying lateral salt movement beneath the upper canyon, resulting in salt wedges uplifting the continental slope and raising sediments and coalescing, resulting in a valley-like feature with walls of uplifted and deformed strata. Once established, the narrow upper canyon was preserved and/or steepened by erosive, gravity-controlled processes.
Keathley Canyon
Okeanos Explorer EX1402L3 - Dive 06: Keathley Canyon.
Video courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research.
Alaminos Canyon
Area 1,977 sq km | Length 75 km | Depth Min 1,208 m | Depth Max 2,991 m
Alaminos Canyon transitions from the slope with a steep gradient to the abyssal plain through depositional sequences (Jiang et al. 2011). The lower slope in the Alaminos Canyon area consists of a series of amalgamated allochthonous salt bodies that originated from separate salt features (Fiduk et al. 1996). A prominent embayment is present in the salt front forming the “canyon,” which is actually an area in between salt tongues that extends out against the northeast-trending Oligocene-age Perdido foldbelt and is not stratigraphic in its origin (Fiduk et al. 1999).
Alaminos Canyon is located east of the Perdido Fold Belt which is part of the Cenozoic compressional fold system in the Gulf of Mexico and contains Cretaceous to Eocene sedimentary rocks. The Fold Belt contains Upper Jurassic–Eocene age strata folded during the early Oligocene (36-30 Ma), with deformation most likely continuing into the early Miocene (Colmenares 2014). The Alaminos Canyon is thought to have been a conduit to collect and transport sediment to the Perdido Fold Belt from the middle Miocene to present (Waller 2007).
Alaminos Canyon
This bed of mussels (Bathymodiolus childressi), located beneath a carbonate ledge, shows tubeworms sticking up through cracks in the carbonate at 2,200 m depth in Alaminos Canyon. Note the sea cucumber swimming away after being disturbed by the submersible
Image courtesy of Chuck Fisher.
Perdido Canyon
Area 1,981 sq km | Length 55 km | Depth Min 1,314 m | Depth Max 3,071 m
The Perdido Fold Belt is a southwest-trending feature that extends about 50 kmsoutheast of the Sigsbee Escarpment within U.S. waters and is known to extend to the southwest for more than 100 km into Mexican waters (Fiduk et al. 1999). It is located in approximately 2,000 to 3,000 m water depth.
Perdido Canyon incises the slope of the Perdido escarpment, an extension of the Sigsbee escarpment. The Perdido Fold Belt, a prominent saltcored deep water structure characterized by symmetric, kink-banded folds of a ~4.5 km thick prekinematic layer is located in the vicinity of the extensive Sigsbee Salt Canopy (Gradmann et al. 2009), at the abrupt shelf of the Texas-Louisiana Slope. This area defines the seaward limits of northern Goma salt structures.
A study focusing on the southern margin of the Perdido Canyon, found seepage zones occurring within a trough-like feature (gully) trending sub-parallel to the face of the Great White Escarpment and south of Perdido Canyon (Neurauter et al. 2008). ROV images detected a variety of bottom types within the gully ranging from discolored sediments laced with white bacterial mats to small clusters of tubeworms. In addition to the bacteria Beggiatoa, chemosynthetic organisms included mussel beds and tubeworms which were generally small, scattered patches, associated with small mounds and pockmarks. There is little other biological data for this canyon.
Perdido Canyon
Video describing all of the planning required to successfully carry out a dive to explore near the Perdido oil rig platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Video courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018.
Pacific Submarine Canyons
01 / 11
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JUAN DE FUCA CANYON SYSTEM
2
GRAY'S CANYON SYSTEM AND ASTORIA CANYON
3
EEL CANYON
4
DELGADA CANYON SYSTEM
5
PACIFIC 2 AND PIONEER CANYON
6
MONTEREY CANYON SYSTEM
7
SUR AND LUCIA CANYON SYSTEMS
8
ARGUELLO AND PACIFIC 1 CANYONS
9
HUENEME CANYON
10
NEWPORT CANYON
11
LA JOLLA / SCRIPPS CANYON SYSTEM
Alaska Submarine Canyons
01 / 04
1
Hanna Canyon
2
Chukchi Sea 1 Canyon
3
Chukchi Sea 2 Canyon
4
Beaufort Sea 1 Canyon
Report Availability
To download a PDF file of this report, go to the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Data and Information Systems webpage , click on the link for the Environmental Studies Program Information System (ESPIS), and search on 2019-066. The report is also available at the National Technical Reports Library .