Exploration of the Southern California Borderland

E/V Nautilus cruise NA075 returned to the Southern California Continental Borderland, an area that remains largely unexplored. Part of the broader North America-Pacific plate boundary, this region extends ~300 km west of the San Andreas Fault and displays an unusually rugged physiography. During the cruise, the multibeam sonar mapped ~5,200 km2 of seafloor, and ROVs Hercules and Argus were deployed for 16 dives to explore geological and biological targets (Figure 1) and collect samples