it was created by titanic collisions between plates of the Earth’s
crust. Its growth continues due to strong water currents, which
wear away huge amounts of sediment to create avalanche-like
flows of sand and mud.
The continental shelf leading to the abyss spreads more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) from shore near San Francisco—but to the south it barely exists at all. At Moss Landing, where Monterey Bay pokes farthest into the California coast, the canyon dives to hundreds of feet in depth just a stone’s throw from shore. Within the confines of the bay, the canyon reaches nearly one mile (1.6 kilometers) down.
Because the canyon is so deep so close to shore, occasional upwellings of cold, deep-ocean water can bring bottom-dwelling creatures within convenient reach of scientists who study them. Still, the deepest areas of Monterey Canyon can be explored only with special deep-sea diving equipment.
