Dredging operations on the Scripps Institution vessel during the past year have shown that phosphorite is extensively developed on the sea floor off Southern California. This deposit is found as large nodules or as a coating on other rocks. It is particularly abundant on the numerous banks that lie off this coast and is found also on most of the submarine slopes and on the sides of a few submarine canyons. These environments are characterized by general absence of recent sediments. Some glauconitic and foraminiferal sands are associated. The phosphorite is thought to be of recent origin and the deposition is probably continuing at the present time.

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