interested in them in the early 1930 »s. Three submarine canyons 

 are located in Santa Monica Bay although one, Dime Canyon, is 

 outside the area of this investigation, Shepard and Emery (1941) 

 described and discussed the various theories proposed for the 

 origin of submarine canyons, and covered in detail the submarine 

 topography off the California coast. Recently, Crowell (1951, 

 1952) proposed an origin for submarine canyons using the Santa 

 Monica Bay area as an illustration of his hypothesis. Clements 

 and Emery (1947) studied submarine topography in relation to the 

 distribution of earthquakes off the coast of southern California. 



The earliest source of information regarding the character 

 of bottom material in Santa Monica Bay appears on "smooth sheets" 

 of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. The first reconnaissance 

 survey of Santa Monica Bay was made in 1851, However, detailed 

 work was not started until 1873 and was completed two years later. 

 There was additional work in 1893, 1925, 1926, 1928, and an almost 

 complete resurvey of Santa Monica Bay in 1933-34, Notations of 

 the bottom character were recorded on the "smooth sheets" in 

 connection with sounding operations. Bottom sediment charts 

 compiled from these notations may show an exceptional jimount of 

 detail, e.g., U, S, Coast and Geodetic "smooth sheet" no, 1341-B 

 made in 1875 for the northern part of Santa Monica Bay. 



Trask (1931) made one of the earliest environmental studies 

 of sediments in relation to submarine topography. Most of the 

 samples he collected in Santa Monica Bay were located near Point 

 Dume, The results of his study have been quoted in numerous 

 articles and books dealing with source sediments for petroleum 

 and the origin of oil. 



