pockmark

The Sur Pockmark Field -- an area about the size of the city of Los Angeles that is located off the coast of Big Sur, California -- contains more than 5,200 circular depressions.

The team found multiple layers of sandy deposits, called turbidites, in the sediment samples taken from the pockmarks and the sub-bottom images of the pockmark field.

These sediment gravity flows appear to cause erosion in the center of each pockmark, maintaining these unique underwater morphologic features over time.

For the past six years, MBARI's Continental Margin Processes Team has been working to understand the origins of the pockmark formations, establish whether they are geologically active, and determine if they are areas of special biological significance.

The research team used mapping AUVs developed by engineers in MBARI's Seafloor Mapping Lab to visualize a portion of the Sur Pockmark Field in greater detail.