Cascadia Channel

Cascadia Channel is a submarine channel in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, crossing the Cascadia Abyssal Plain, passing through the Blanco fracture zone, and continuing into the Tufts Abyssal Plain off the coasts of Oregon and Washington. It is believed to be more than 2,200 kilometers long, among the most extensive deep sea channels known in the Pacific. The channel first developed on the eastern flank of the Juan de Fuca Ridge during seafloor spreading, and its modern erosional form was carved during the Pleistocene, when lower sea levels during glaciation sent sand and gravel from shore into turbidity currents that cut the channel's lower and middle sections.