Redondo Canyon, which is the southern half of Santa Monica Bay, is one of several deeply-incised submarine valleys which cross the nearshore shelf off southern California. Sediments in the vicinity of the canyon consist primarily of fine sands and sandy silts within the canyon, and olive-green hemipelagic silts and clay silts on the shelf and slope. Most of the sediments within the area were transported by means of local drainage and longshore drift from source areas in the Santa Monica Mountains. Redondo Canyon was formed by submarine erosion along the trend of a pre-existing structural trough created primarily by faulting during the mid-Pleistocene elevation of the Palos Verdes Hills structural block. Temperature-salinity relationships define three different water masses in the Redondo Canyon area. The distribution of suspended sediment within the area of Redondo Canyon is controlled by the canyon's topographic effects on current flow. Wind-driven currents, however, control the distribution of surface suspended sediment. (Author).