Preprint of an observational geospatial study testing whether population-adjusted UAP report density correlates with submarine canyon steepness along the US coastline. Using 80,332 geocoded NUFORC reports (1990–2014), ETOPO bathymetry, and inverse-distance-weighted population controls, the study evaluates a pre-specified canyon scoring function across 102 testable West Coast grid cells. In the primary analysis, submarine canyon steepness is positively associated with report density (Spearman rho = 0.374, p = 0.0001, 95% CI 0.190, 0.531). The association is regional, absent on the East/Gulf Coast, and subject to documented limitations including self-reported outcome data, residual confounding, and shared geocoding structure in the post-2014 temporal holdout. Code, figures, audit materials, and reproducibility files are available in the companion repository:https://github.com/antoniwedzikowski-rgb/uap-canyon-analysis
Antoni Wędzikowski (Tue,) studied this question.