The Quinault Canyon is a submarine canyon, off

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

, in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

The area

It lies opposite the

Quinault Reservation The Quinault Indian Nation ( or ; QIN), formerly known as the Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation, is a federally recognized tribe of Quinault, Queets, Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz peoples.Quinault River Quinault may refer to: * Quinault people, an Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast **Quinault Indian Nation, a federally recognized tribe **Quinault language, their language People * Quinault family of actors, including * Jean-Baptis ...

drains into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, opposite Quinault Canyon. The north of the

Copalis National Wildlife Refuge Washington Maritime National Wildlife Refuge Complex is an administrative grouping of six National Wildlife Refuges in Washington, managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It includes: * Flattery Rocks National Wildlife Refuge (, ) ...

is also a bit east, as are a few cities and sites, as Kalaloch,

Queets Queets is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Grays Harbor and Jefferson counties, Washington, United States. The population was 174 at the 2010 census. The primary residents of the community are Native Americans of ...

, Taholah,

Point Grenville Point Grenville is a headland of Washington state. The point was named ''Punta de los Mártires'' ("Point of the Martyrs") during the 1775 expedition of Bruno de Heceta Bruno de Heceta (Hezeta) y Dudagoitia (1743–1807) was a Spanish Basque expl ...

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

), Moclips, and Pacific Beach. Also,

Quinault, Washington Quinault ( or ) is an unincorporated community in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States. Quinault is located on the Olympic Peninsula. Lake Quinault is the location of Lake Quinault Lodge, which is listed on the National Register of Hist ...

and

Lake Quinault Lake Quinault ( or ) is a lake on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington state. It is located in the glacial-carved Quinault Valley of the Quinault River, at the southern edge of Olympic National Park in the northwestern United States. One o ...

are both onshore. The canyon is

dynamic Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dynam ...

area where humans do not detect massive submarine landslides which occur on its steep side walls, and the bottom collects sediment deposited from above.

Its dimensions

Quinault Canyon is from shore, and is 378 square nautical miles in area.

Nearby submarine canyons

All of the following submarine canyons are near, headed north to south: * Clayoquot Canyon * Father Charles Canyon * Loudon Canyon * Barkely Canyon * Nitinat Canyon *

Juan de Fuca Canyon Juan de Fuca Channel is a submarine channel off the shore of Washington state, United States and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The geography of Juan de Fuca Channel The Juan de Fuca Channel is a submarine canyon running from the shelf break, o ...

* Quileute Canyon * Quinault Canyon * Grays Canyon * Guide Canyon * Willapa Canyon * Astoria Canyon Of local submarine canyons, Quinault canyon is deepest. Quinault Canyon has a maximum depth of .

Quinault Canyon's relationships to volcanic eruptions

Both the

1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens On March 27, 1980, a series of volcanic explosions and pyroclastic flows began at Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Washington, United States. A series of phreatic blasts occurred from the summit and escalated until a major explosive eru ...

and the eruption of Mount Mazama in about 5677 BC left turbidites, in Quinault Canyon.

On Quinault Canyon's role as a pathway

Quinault Canyon has acted as a funnel for north- and northwestward-moving

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

along Washington’s

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

, and it is a major pathway between the

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

and deep sea.

Silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

originating from the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

move down Quinault Canyon.

On Quinault Canyon's aquatic life

It also serves as a

conduit Conduit may refer to: Engineering systems * Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids * Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables * Conduit curre ...

for dense, cold, nutrient-rich

seawater Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has appro ...

pulling toward shore, where upwelling feeds surface productivity at the base of the food web. Due to productive topographically induced

upwelling Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water from deep water towards the ocean surface. It replaces the warmer and usually nutrient-depleted surface water. The nutr ...

that occurs, Quinault Canyon is important for many

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

, and

whales Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

. High relief is offered by boulders, vertical walls, and ridges. Rockfish have used this. As of June 14, 2016, there has been low sampling, but there are 14 records of *

corals Corals are marine invertebrates within the class (biology), class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important C ...

, *

sponges Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through ...

, ''and'' * pennatulids, including

black coral Antipatharians, also known as black corals or thorn corals, are an order of soft deep-water corals. These corals can be recognized by their jet-black or dark brown chitin skeletons, surrounded by the polyps (part of coral that is alive). Antip ...

and glass sponge.

Quinault Channel

deep-sea channel Abyssal channels (also, deep-sea channels, underwater channels) are Channel (geography), channels in Earth's sea floor. They are formed by fast-flowing floods of Turbidity current, turbid water caused by avalanches near the channel's head, with ...

, Quinault Channel, connects Quinault Canyon to Cascadia Channel.

Exploration of Quinault Canyon

As of August 2017, there is an expedition to explore Quinault Canyon, something never before done. Results are forthcoming.

Remotely operated underwater vehicle A remotely operated underwater vehicle (technically ROUV or just ROV) is a tethered underwater mobile device, commonly called ''underwater robot''. Definition This meaning is different from remote control vehicles operating on land or in the ai ...

s or autonomous underwater vehicles have never before explored Quinault and Quileute Canyons. These canyons are of great interest. The mission is to map habitats that support many of the

Quinault Nation The Quinault Indian Nation ( or ; QIN), formerly known as the Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation, is a federally recognized tribe of Quinault people, Quinault, Queets people, Queets, Quileute people, Quileute, Hoh, Chehalis people, Chehal ...

’s treaty fisheries, sample for harmful

algal blooms An algal bloom or algae bloom is a rapid increase or accumulation in the population of algae in freshwater or marine water systems. It is often recognized by the discoloration in the water from the algae's pigments. The term ''algae'' encompa ...

, to map the ocean floor, to check

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

levels, and investigate

ocean acidification Ocean acidification is the reduction in the pH value of the Earth’s ocean. Between 1751 and 2021, the average pH value of the ocean surface has decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14. The root cause of ocean acidification is carbon dioxid ...

Methane seeps

Methane seeps A cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. ''Cold'' does not mean that the temperature of the seep ...

have been found, inside and near Quinault Canyon.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Columbia River sediment confirmed, in Quinault Canyon

Turbidite paleoseismology, earthquakes

More on earthquakes, turbidites

On mapping the Quinault Canyon seafloor

And more on the exploration of Quinault Canyon
Geography of the Pacific Northwest Submarine canyons of the Pacific Ocean Quinault places Quinault