319 Sentences With "continental slope" | Random Sentence Generator

One possibility is that extraction could destabilize the sea floor and send sediment tumbling down the continental slope.

Many major features of the Gulf of Mexico's continental slope — where the sea bottom descends from the continent's outer edge down to the deep ocean floor — were formed when that slope failed.

What we do know as that unlike the cold, dead Red Planet next door, the deep sea, which extends from roughly 200 meters down the continental slope to 11,000 meters at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, is teeming with bizarre forms of life that challenge our understanding of biology and evolution.

This marine species occurs on the continental slope off the Philippines.

This marine species occurs off the upper continental slope of Transkei, South Africa.

The spiny-back eel is a deep sea, demersal fish, living at depths between about in the Southern Hemisphere, in subtropical, temperate and subpolar waters. Its range includes the continental slope of South Africa, from Walvis Bay to Durban, the continental slope of South America from Brazil to Chile, and the continental slope to the south of Australia from Western Australia to Tasmania and New South Wales, as well as New Zealand. It is also found on knolls and seamounts.

This marine species occurs on the continental slope of western Transkei, South Africa, at depths between 300–446 m.

This species occurs on the continental slope at depths between 350 m and 580 m in the Coral Sea.

Fossilised bones from extinct whale species have been recovered from the terraced continental slope from depths beyond in this area.

The MPA covers the continental shelf, which is narrow in this region, and the upper continental slope to 1000m depth.

This species occurs in the Arafura Sea at depths between 550 m and 620 m; on the continental slope of the Chine Sea.

Sepia hedleyi occurs from shallow water to the continental slope, with the maximum depth recorded being 1092 m and the minimum 47 m.

29417] Promyllanter atlanticus (Anguilliformes, Congridae), a new species from the continental slope of southwestern Africa. Journal of Ichthyology v. 46 (no. 8): 566-569.

The bottom-dwelling butterfly stingaree has only been recorded from a depth of on the continental slope off the Chesterfield Islands, northwest of New Caledonia.

The range of the Australian reticulate swellshark is limited to the upper continental slope off northwestern Australia, between Geraldton and Broome. It occurs at a depth of .

It dwells at a depth range of 260–775 metres, and is found off the continental slope. Males can reach a maximum total length of 37 centimetres.

During the Palaeozoic era at least a few thousand kilometres of ocean floor were subducted, taking of the order of a hundred million years. Sediments were deposited in the ocean floor in the form of fans formed by turbidity currents off the side of a continental slope. The flow was in the northerly direction, indicating that the continental slope was to the south. These deposits occurred during the Ordovician period.

Upeneusmascareinsis has been found at depths of and is therefore considered to be a species of the lower continental shelf and upper continental slope in the Indian Ocean.

However, it is known from as deep as , and there is a record of a specimen, apparently of this species, collected from the continental slope at a depth of .

The speckled swellshark is found only off Western Australia, from Rowley Shoals to Ashmore Reef. It inhabits the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at a depth of .

In addition, underwater landslides called turbidity currents can transport hemipelagic sediment from the continental slope to the continental rise and form a turbidite sequence. Typically, hemipelagic sediment is transported to the continental slope in suspension from river mouths but can be transported by the wind. The rate of deposition of hemipelagic sediment is higher than pelagic sediment but still quite slow. Ordinarily hemipelagic sediments accumulate too rapidly to react chemically with seawater.

The benthic region of the ocean begins at the shore line (intertidal or littoral zone) and extends downward along the surface of the continental shelf out to sea. The continental shelf is a gently sloping benthic region that extends away from the land mass. At the continental shelf edge, usually about deep, the gradient greatly increases and is known as the continental slope. The continental slope drops down to the deep sea floor.

The range of the Chesterfield Island stingaree is limited to the Chesterfield Islands, northwest of New Caledonia. This bottom-dwelling ray inhabits the continental slope over a depth range of .

Sediment that has piled up at the top of the continental slope, particularly at the heads of submarine canyons can create turbidity current due to overloading, thus consequent slumping and sliding.

The mean slope of continental shelves worldwide is 0° 07' degrees, and typically steeper closer to the coastline than it is near the shelf break. At the shelf break begins the continental slope, which can be one to five kilometers above the deep-ocean floor. The continental slope often exhibits features called submarine canyons. Submarine canyons often cut into the continental shelves deeply, with near vertical sides, and continue to cut the morphology to the abyssal plain.

Scalicus orientalis is a species of armored searobin native to the western Pacific Ocean where it occurs at depths of on the continental slope. This species grows to a length of SL.

The range of the northern sawtail catshark is limited to the upper continental slope off Queensland, between Rockhampton and Townsville. It is found on or near the bottom at a depth of .

The narrowbar swellshark has only been found at a depth of on the upper continental slope, near Flinders Reef off the Australian state of Queensland. Its distribution may be wider than is known.

This species has been collected in the eastern Indian Ocean (Nicobar Islands) and on the upper continental slope along the western margin of the South China Sea. The bathymetric range is 380–1000 m.

Cetonurichthys subinflatus, the smallpore whiptail, is a species of rattail found off western Australia. It is a benthic fish which occurs at depths of on the continental slope. This species grows to a length of .

D. horridus has a global but discontinuous distribution on the continental slope in oceans in the southern hemisphere; this includes Chile, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The depth range of this sea urchin is .

Around this time, the fish reach a critical size and become bathypelagic. They gradually inhabit deeper waters as they grow, migrating down the continental slope. Adult fish are generally found at depths greater than 500 m.

Phormosoma placenta is a species of sea urchin in the order Echinothurioida. It is a deepwater species, seldom being found at depths less than , and occurs on either side of the Atlantic Ocean on the continental slope.

The resulting regions are: Benguela, Agulhas, Natal, and Delagoa ecoregions, which include the coast, continental shelf and shelf edge, and the Southeast Atlantic and Southwest Indian ecoregions include the upper and lower continental slope and abyssal regions.

The border between the continental slope and the abyssal plain usually has a more gradual descent, and is called the continental rise, which is caused by sediment cascading down the continental slope. The mid-ocean ridge, as its name implies, is a mountainous rise through the middle of all the oceans, between the continents. Typically a rift runs along the edge of this ridge. Along tectonic plate edges there are typically oceanic trenches – deep valleys, created by the mantle circulation movement from the mid-ocean mountain ridge to the oceanic trench.

The canyon is located near the 100 meter isobath on the continental shelf and is deep at the base of the continental slope. Over an distance, the average slope of the canyon floor is 1.5°. At this point the canyon is as much as wide (from east rim to west rim) and as much as deep from canyon rim to canyon floor across the continental slope. The floor of the canyon is less than wide across the upper part of the slope and broadens to about at the base of the slope.

Microchirus azevia, commonly known as the bastard sole, is a species of flatfish in the family Soleidae. It is found on the continental slope of the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea at depths down to about .

Both Figaro species are endemic to Australian waters, F. boardmani in the south and F. striatus in the northeast. They are deepwater species found on or near the sea floor, inhabiting the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope.

It is the only species in the monotypic genus Indobatis. It inhabits the continental slope at depths of from . This species can reach a length of . It is dark-colored, greyish-black or brownish on the dorsum, ventrally lighter.

The range of the lollipop catshark extends from the Gulf of California to off the southern Baja peninsula. This benthic species occurs around the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at depths of , where it is reportedly abundant.

Aglantha digitale is the most common species of jellyfish found in surface waters in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. It occurs above the continental slope but is more common over the deep ocean, seldom occurring at a depth greater than .

Diagrammatic cross-section of an oceanic basin The continental rise is a sediment underwater feature found between the continental slope and the abyssal plain. This feature can be found all around the world, and it represents the final stage in the boundary between continents and the deepest part of the ocean. The environment in the continental rise is quite unique, and many oceanographers study it extensively in the hopes of learning more about the ocean and geologic history. At the bottom of the continental slope, one will find the continental rise, an underwater hill composed of tons of accumulated sediments.

The Lamayuru and Markha Units are formed by flyschs and olistholiths deposited in a turbiditic environment, on the northern part of the Indian continental slope and in the adjoining Neotethys basin. The age of these sediments ranges from Late Permian to Eocene.

The banded-fin flounder or spotted flounder, Azygopus pinnifasciatus, is a righteye flounder and the only species in the genus Azygopus. It is found off southern Australia and New Zealand, on the continental slope at depths of between . Its length is up to .

They are bottom-dwelling and inhabit rocky localities on the shelf and upper continental slope. Juveniles are more often found in shallow waters. They feed on dragonets, mantis shrimps, hake, squid, and various fish species. Spawning usually takes place from August to October.

Astoria Fan is generally asymmetrical. It extends roughly west of the mouth of Astoria Canyon, and about north, to Willapa Channel. Others trace different dimensions. Headed west, the fan crosses the continental shelf, trending sinuously down to the base of the continental slope.

Synaphobranchus kaupii at the IUCN redlist. It dwells at a depth range of , most often between , and inhabits the upper abyssal zone on the continental slope. It is intolerant of the temperatures of higher waters. Males can reach a maximum total length of .

The species occurs in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico as well as the eastern and central Pacific Ocean and Hawaii. It is a deepwater species found near the seabed on the continental slope at depths between .

It can general be found living on or near the bottom at depths between 637 and 2239 meters.Mincarone, M.M., J.G. Nielsen and P.A.S. Costa, 2008. Deep-sea ophidiiform fishes collected on the Brazilian continental slope, between 11° and 23°S. Zootaxa 1770:41-64.

Endemic to northern Queensland, the range of the Coral Sea stingaree extends from Moreton Island northward to Cairns, and encompasses the Saumarez and Marion Reefs. This bottom-dwelling species is found on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, at a depth of .

Native aluminium has been reported also in cold seeps in the northeastern continental slope of the South China Sea and Chen et al. (2011) have proposed a theory of its origin as resulting by reduction from tetrahydroxoaluminate Al(OH)4− to metallic aluminium by bacteria.

Neptune grass (Posidonia oceanica) The Rocca locality in Volterra is representative of a neritic-to-littoral zone along a continental slope. The dwarf and pygmy sperm whales also inhabit the continental slope. The area has yielded the extinct dolphins Etruridelphis and Hemisyntrachelus, G. etruriae, the baleen whale Balaena paronai, the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), the Mesoplodon beaked whales M. lawleyi and M. danconae, and the manatee Metaxytherium subapenninum. The area has an unusually large and one of the most diverse decapod crustacean assemblages known from the Pliocene; this implies a sandy-muddy and at places hard-rock seafloor with calm, well-oxygenated, nearshore water, which are conducive for decapod life.

Barkley Canyon extends from the continental shelf edge at 400 m down the continental slope to the canyon axis at 985 m water depth. Located at the leading edge of the Cascadia subduction zone, this site supports the study of the accretionary prism, where the sediments pile along the continental slope as they are scraped off the subducting or descending tectonic plate. This is also a location where pressure, temperature, gas saturation, and local biological and chemical conditions are just right for exposed gas hydrates to be stable on the seafloor. Gas hydrates have gas molecules, typically methane in marine environments, trapped within “cages” of water molecules.

This octopus is known from the continental slope in the northern Atlantic Ocean at 2,055 meters deep. It is likely demersal. At maximum, its body is 400 millimeters long, and its mantle is 115 millimeters long. Its fin span is around 70% of the octopus' total length.

"Thickness of the natural gas hydrate stability zone, Gulf of Mexico continental slope." Marine and Petroleum Geology 17, no. 9 (2000): 981-991. It was also noted that the depth of gas hydrate occurrence coincides with the presence of black organic and/or pyrite-rich mud.

Small juveniles probably reside inshore in very rocky, high relief areas, and by age 3 begin to migrate to deeper offshore waters of the continental shelf (Carlson and Straty 1981). As they grow, they continue to migrate deeper, eventually reaching the continental slope, where they attain adulthood.

The depth of the seafloor in this area ranges from , with an average of . After the shelf, the continental slope descends to abyssal plains at deep. In all these areas, 90% of the seafloor is made up of soft sediments, such as sand, mud, and gravel.

Of continental origin, the lower level on the shelf is mostly alluvial sands with pebbles, mixed with less common lacustrine silts and freshwater mollusc shells. Inside the Black Sea Depression they are terrigenous non-carbonate silts, and at the foot of the continental slope turbidite sediments.

The blacktip sawbelly (Hoplostethus intermedius) is a small deep-sea fish species belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). It is found off southern Australia and New Zealand. It ranges at depths from where it lives on the continental shelf and continental slope. It can reach sizes of up to .

Fenestraja plutonia is a species of cartilaginous fish in the family Gurgesiellidae. It is commonly known as the underworld windowskate or Pluto skate. The underworld windowskate is known from patches of continental slope in the western Atlantic Ocean between the coasts of the southern United States and Suriname.

Aranda is built on top of rocks from the Pittman Formation. These are from the upper Ordovician Age. Mostly the rocks are greywacke formed on a continental slope, but also have bands of the Acton Shale Member, a grey to black laminated shale. The Acton Shale contains graptolites.

Macrourus carinatus is a commercial fishery species. Targeted fishery along the Patagonian continental slope reached a peak of 50,000 tonnes in 1988 but declined precipitously thereafter. At present, it is treated as a by-catch species that is not allowed to exceed 10% of daily catches in weight.

It is a marine, tropical eel which is known from the western central Atlantic Ocean, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, northern South America and southern Brazil. It dwells at a depth range of , and inhabits the continental slope. Males can reach a maximum total length of .

This shark is found off the east coast of Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, and off New Zealand.Scientists delighted to find rare shark off the east coast of Flinders Island, Tasmania Its habitat is in the demersal zone on the upper to middle continental slope.

Prior to the Ediacaran the continent was assembled from several terranes. In the early Paleozoic the environment was a continental slope. In the later Paleozoic the area was a platform, and from the Mesozoic period till now it has been affected by the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Exact times and locations were recorded for each break. Investigators suggested that a 60-mile-per-hour (100 km/h) submarine landslide or turbidity current of water-saturated sediments swept 400 miles (600 km) down the continental slope from the earthquake's epicenter, snapping the cables as it passed.

Aristaeomorpha foliacea is an important target species for bottom otter trawlers operating on the continental slope in the Strait of Sicily where is pursued by boats from Tunisia, Malta and Sicily. it is also a quarry species off Venezuela and Madagascar. A. foliacea is marketed fresh or frozen.

The Metavay sawbelly (Hoplostethus shubnikovi) is a slimehead of the order Beryciformes. It is native to the Indian Ocean along the northern section of the Mentawai ridge and western Australia. It can be found at depths between on the continental slope and can reach sizes of up to SL.

Their mineralogical and geochemical characteristics allow to identify their Himalayan origin and demonstrate that the Himalaya was already a major mountain range 20 million years ago. The fan completely covers the floor of the Bay of Bengal. It is bordered to the west by the continental slope of eastern India, to the north by the continental slope of Bangladesh and to east by the northern part of Sunda Trench off Myanmar and the Andaman Islands, the accretionary wedge associated with subduction of the Indo- Australian Plate beneath the Sunda Plate and continues along the west side of the Ninety East Ridge. The Nicobar Fan, another lobe of the fan, lies east of the Ninety East Ridge.

The fan completely covers the floor of the Bay of Bengal. It is bordered to the west by the continental slope of eastern India, to the north by the continental slope of Bangladesh and to east by the northern part of Sunda Trench off Myanmar and the Andaman Islands, the accretionary wedge associated with subduction of the Indo-Australian Plate beneath the Sunda Plate and continues along the west side of the Ninety East Ridge. The Nicobar Fan, another lobe of the fan, lies east of the Ninety East Ridge. The fan was first identified by bathymetric survey in the sixties by Bruce C. Heezen and Marie Tharp which identified the abyssal cone and canyon structures.

The giant sawbelly (Hoplostethus gigas) is a medium-sized deep-sea fish species belonging to the slimehead family (Trachichthyidae). It is found along the western and southern coasts of Australia and near New Zealand. It lives on the continental slope between depths of . It can reach sizes of up to SL.

The palefin sawbelly (Hoplostethus latus) is a medium-sized deep-sea fish species belonging to the slimehead family. It is native to Australia's southern waters and the Eastern Indian Ocean where it lives at depths between on the continental slope and continental shelf. It can reach sizes of up to TL.

Burgessochaeta is thought to have been a decomposer or scavenger on organic material. It probably swam, as its bristles were much too long to be useful for moving itself in a burrow. Specimens have been found from both continental slope and deep-water environments, indicating that this was a widespread animal.

Insentiraja laxipella, commonly known as the eastern looseskin skate, is a small deep-water skate in the family Arhynchobatidae. Its known range includes only the continental slope off Queensland. Due to the limited knowledge of its biology and extent of capture in fisheries, this species is assessed as Data Deficient.

The sandyback stingaree is patchily distributed off southeastern Australia, from Beachport in South Australia to Tasmania, to Stradbroke Island off Queensland. This benthic ray generally inhabits areas with fine sediment on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, and rarely ventures inshore. It has been reported from between deep.

Ogilby's ghostshark (Hydrolagus ogilbyi), also known as the whitefish, is a species of chimaera endemic to the waters of Australia. It lives near the ocean floor on the continental shelf and continental slope deep. It reaches a maximum size of . Reproduction is oviparous and eggs are encased in horny shells.

The roughsnout grenadier occurs in the eastern Atlantic from the continental slope off western Ireland south to Namibia, including the waters off the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands. In the Mediterranean Sea it is known from the waters around Spain and Morocco, the Ligurian Sea and the seas around Greece.

Galiteuthis glacialis is found predominantly in the Southern Ocean. It occupies the northern and eastern parts of the Weddell Sea, but is less abundant in the Southernmost part. This species prefers the open ocean and steep continental slope of the Eastern Weddell Sea. They are also found around the South Shetland Islands.

Narwhals from Canada and West Greenland winter regularly in the pack ice of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay along the continental slope with less than 5% open water and high densities of Greenland halibut. Feeding in the winter accounts for a much larger portion of narwhal energy intake than in the summer.

The whitefin swellshark is found off southeastern Australia from Batemans Bay, New South Wales to the Great Australian Bight as far as Eucla, Western Australia, including southern Tasmania from Maria Island to Point Hibbs. It is a bottom-dweller that inhabits the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, at a depth of .

Bathyhedyle boucheti is a species of panpulmonate slug, a deep-sea dwelling gastropod native to the continental slope off the coast of Mozambique. It is the first ever such panpulmonate slug to be discovered at such depths. It is the only known member of its family group. Its radular formula is 1.1.2.

The benthic zones are aphotic and correspond to the three deepest zones of the deep-sea. The bathyal zone covers the continental slope down to about . The abyssal zone covers the abyssal plains between 4,000 and 6,000 m. Lastly, the hadal zone corresponds to the hadalpelagic zone, which is found in oceanic trenches.

The continental shelf off the Oregon coast ranges from approximately 17 to 74 km in width, from the shoreline to the edge of the continental slope, and reaches a maximum depth of 145 to 183 meters (m) on its outer limits. The shelf has a relatively steep, downward facing seafloor as it transitions into the continental slope. However, due to uplift of the continental crust, Heceta Bank extends the outer limits of the continental shelf and creates an area with relatively shallower bathymetry and less-steep seafloor slope. On its landward side, the bank starts at a depth of 60 m and progressively deepens until it reaches its seaward face, where the bathymetry drops abruptly to 1000 m in depth.

The specimens were caught by bottom trawling in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. This octopus was found 3,900 meters deep in the abyssal plain and on the continental slope. It is potentially a demersal species, which means it would live close to the seafloor. The largest of the seven specimens was 475 millimeters in length.

Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota: Volume 3, Geology (Vol. 3). College Station, Texas, Texas A&M; University Press. . The sediments that fill the Orca Basin contain an important record of the paleoenvironment and paleo-oceanology of the Louisiana continental slope south of the Mississippi River Delta for at least the last 25,000 years.

The continental slope is much steeper than the shelf; the average angle is 3°, but it can be as low as 1° or as high as 10°.Pinet 36, Gross 43. The slope is often cut with submarine canyons. The physical mechanisms involved in forming these canyons were not well understood until the 1960s.

Some of the largest antidunes on Earth are formed by turbidity currents. One observed sediment-wave field is located on the lower continental slope off Guyana, South America.Ercilla, G., Alonso, B., Wynn, R.B. & Baraza, J. 2002, "Turbidity current sediment waves on irregular slopes: Observations from the Orinoco sediment-wave field", Marine Geology, vol. 192, no.

The Bonney Upwelling is the largest and most predictable upwelling in the GSACUS. It stretches from Portland, Victoria to Robe, South Australia. The continental shelf is narrow offshore of the "Bonney Coast" - only about from the shore to the continental slope - and deep water is funneled to the surface through a series of submarine canyons.

Elphidium is an abundant genus of foraminifera. Species can be found from coastal regions out to the continental slope, and in all temperature ranges. Like other forams, fossils from different species are used to date rocks. The taxonomy of the species within this genus is disputed due to the high variability of some species.

Halosaurus johnsonianus, also called the Sahara halosaur, is a deep-sea fish in the family Halosauridae. It is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean from southern Spain and Portugal to Mauritania, including the Azores and Canary Islands. It is a benthopelagic species living on the continental slope in depths from . It grows to total length.

The known specimens of the Indonesian angelshark have come from fish landing sites at Palabuhanratu in West Java, Cilacap in Central Java, Kedonganan in Bali, and Tanjung Luar in Lombok. Therefore, specific information on its preferred natural habitat is unavailable, though it is probably bottom-dwelling in the deeper waters of the continental slope.

Laternula elliptica is found in the Southern Ocean, round Antarctica and the tip of Patagonia.Laternula elliptica (King & Broderip, 1831) Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 2012-02-13. It has been found in waters as shallow as the intertidal zone and as deep as the continental slope (~), but it is most common in shallow waters.

They are typically found in the shallow sea in arctic permafrost regions and continental slopes. In Western Canada, the Mackenzie-Beaufort Sea and the continental slope off Vancouver Island are two areas which have undergone extensive exploration drilling and studies. The gas hydrate deposits in these regions are estimated to hold up to 11×1013 m3 of gas.

The Czorsztyn unit has the shallowest marine facies. Together with smaller continental slope units and the deep marine Kysuca unit it forms a continental domain called the Oravicum,Maheľ, M., 1986: Geologická stavba československých Karpát / Paleoalpínske jednotky 1. Veda, Bratislava, 503 pp. which is geometrically equivalent to the Briançonnais microcontinent in the Western and Central Alps.

This fish occurs as deep as , but usually stays between . It grows to a length of SL. Hector's lanternfish (Lampanyctodes hectoris) is an important part of its diet.Blaber, S.J.M. & Bulman, C.M. (1987): Diets of fishes of the upper continental slope of eastern Tasmania: content, calorific values, dietary overlap and trophic relationships. Marine Biology 95 (3): 345-56.

McMillan's catshark (Parmaturus macmillani) is a catshark of the family Scyliorhinidae, in the order Carcharhiniformes. McMillan's cat shark is a small, rare and little-known deepwater shark. It is endemic to New Zealand. This species is found in the deep waters of the lower continental slope around New Zealand, on the West Norfolk Ridge and off North Cape.

The sluggish bathydemersal false catshark, shown here at a depth of 1,200 meters, has an enormous oil-filled liver which lets it hover off the continental slope at near-neutral buoyancy. It feeds on cephalopods, cutthroat eels, grenadiers, snake mackerel, and lanternsharks.Martin, R.A. Procellariidae and Pseudotriakidae: Finback & False Catsharks. ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research. Retrieved on February 14, 2009.

Neopagetopsis ionah, Jonah's icefish, is a species of crocodile icefish found in the Southern Ocean at depths of from . It has a circum-Antarctic distribution on the continental slope and continental shelf. This species grows to a length of TL. Adults mainly feed on fishes and krill. This species is the only known member of its genus.

Chionobathyscus dewitti, is a species of crocodile icefish native to the Southern Ocean, where it occurs on the continental slope and continental shelf at depths of . The species, which grows to a length of TL, is the only known member of its genus. It feeds mainly on krill and fish. It is of no interest to commercial fisheries.

The two original specimens of the Florida torpedo came from a depth of on the upper continental slope of the western Grand Cayman Bank, in the Florida Straits. This ray has also been observed off the Grand Cayman and San Andreas Islands in the western Caribbean Sea, in both cases amongst scattered coral and gorgonians at depths of respectively.

These canyons are often V-shaped, and can sometime enlarge onto the continental shelf. At the base of the continental slope, there is a sudden decrease in slope, and the sea floor begins to level out towards the abyssal plain. This portion of the seafloor is called the continental rise, and marks the outermost zone of the continental margin.

The grenadier cod or chiseltooth grenadier cod, Tripterophycis gilchristi, is a morid cod of the genus Tripterophycis, found in the mid-south Atlantic Ocean, and around southern Australia, South Africa, Sumatra, and New Zealand. This species is found in marine environments on the continental slope. The average length of an unsexed male is about 33 cm.

In the north it extends east from Svalbard and on the southwest between Britain and the Faroes. This continental slope contains rich fishing grounds and numerous coral reefs. Settling of the shelf after the separation of the continents has resulted in landslides, such as the Storegga Slide about 8,000 years ago that induced a major tsunami.

The saddled swellshark is found off the eastern coast of Australia, as far north as Rockingham Bay in Queensland and as far south as Tathra in New South Wales, and perhaps also the Britannia Seamount near Brisbane. It is a bottom-dwelling species that inhabits the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at a depth of .

South of the Gorringe Bank is the Horseshoe Abyssal Plain. This plain extends south to the Ampere and Coral Patch Seamounts, the Madeira Tore Rise in the west and the continental slope in the east. The crust below this plain is 15 km thick. Crustal shortening has been accommodated in the plain by reverse faults every few kilometers.

Submarine landslides are turbidity currents and consist of water-saturated sediments flowing downslope. An example occurred during the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake that struck the continental slope off the coast of Newfoundland. Minutes later, transatlantic telephone cables began breaking sequentially, farther and farther downslope, away from the epicenter. Twelve cables were snapped in a total of 28 places.

The upper canyon is narrow, extending southwestward down the continental slope. This area has an average gradient of . It is there carved in consolidated or semi-consolidated material of the slope. The lower part of the channel trends northwestward, parallel to the shelf edge, with a gradient of only , terminating at the apex of Nitinat fan.

Antarctic Science 20:537–551. It is not known what happens to these fat-depleted fish, including whether they reach, or how long it takes them to reach, breeding condition again; this ostensibly occurs upon returning to continental-slope waters. Antarctic toothfish have vision and lateral line systems well adapted to find prey in low light levels.

It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-Pacific, including Brazil, the Hancock Seamount, the Hawaiian and Society islands, Japan, Mauritius, and Réunion. It is found off the continental slope, and dwells at a depth range of 100–329 metres. Males can reach a maximum total length of 73 centimetres.

It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the Indo-Pacific and western central Atlantic Ocean, including Zanzibar, Maldives, Australia, Japan, Suriname, and the Gulf of Mexico. It dwells at a depth range of , most often between , and leads a benthic lifestyle, inhabiting the continental slope. Males can reach a maximum total length of .

The swallow-tail or kingfish (Centroberyx lineatus) is a member of the family Berycidae. It is native to the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean off of Madagascar and from Australia to Japan. It can reach sizes of up to TL. It can be found on the continental shelf and continental slope around rocky reefs anywhere from deep.

Deep waters with temperatures between enter the Gulf at the continental slope and are slowly advected up the channel by estuariane circulation.Galbraith, P.S., Pettipas, R.G., Chassé, J., Gilbert, D., Larouche, P., Pettigrew, B., Gosselin, A., Devine, L. and Lafleur, C. 2009. Physical Oceanographic Conditions in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2008. DFO Can. Sci. Advis. Sec. Res. Doc. 2009/014.

The Patch reefs from Valle di Rimbianco present a diverse fauna of fossilized calcitic sponges (Porifera), corals (Cnidaria), bivalves and gastropods (Mollusca), Brachiopoda and Echinodermata. Large parts of the basin are not fossiliferous. In the deep basin and continental slope facies the fauna consists only of ammonites and pseudoplanktonic bivalves, beside of allochthonous elements eroded from the carbonate platform (Cipit Boulders).

The Geikie Slide is a submarine landslide on the seabed of the North Atlantic Ocean to the northwest of Scotland. The slide occurs in a region known as the Hebridean Slope, the continental slope where the seabed drops from the continental shelf surrounding Britain (a depth of c. 200 m) into the deep ocean (a depth of c.1800 m).

The seabed has been explored by submersibles such as Alvin and, to some extent, scuba divers with special equipment. The process that continually adds new material to the ocean floor is seafloor spreading and the continental slope. In recent years satellite images show a very clear mapping of the seabed, and are used extensively in the study and exploration of the ocean floor.

Canyons within mountains, or gorges that have an opening on only one side, are called box canyons. Slot canyons are very narrow canyons that often have smooth walls. Steep-sided valleys in the seabed of the continental slope are referred to as submarine canyons. Unlike canyons on land, submarine canyons are thought to be formed by turbidity currents and landslides.

The deepwater stingray or giant stingaree (Plesiobatis daviesi) is a species of stingray and the sole member of the family Plesiobatidae. It is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific, typically over fine sediments on the upper continental slope at depths of . This species reaches in length and in width. It has an oval pectoral fin disc with a long, flexible, broad-angled snout.

Pavoraja pseudonitida, commonly known as the false peacock skate, is a species of fish in the family Arhynchobatidae. It lives in depths ranging from 212 to 512 meters in the western Pacific Ocean off the coast of north-eastern Australia. Its maximum size is total length. Pavoraja pseudonitida might be the most common skate on the upper continental slope of northeast Australia.

The comber occurs over the continental shelf and upper continental slope among rocks, Posidonia beds, and where there are substrates of sand and mud. It can be found to depths of . It is a predatory species which feeds mainly on crustaceans. Off the Canary Islands the diet varied with size, the smaller fish consuming more crabs while the larger fish ate carideans.

Adults are found primarily offshore on the outer continental shelf and the upper continental slope in depths 150–420 m. Seasonal differences in depth distribution have been noted by many investigators. In the summer, adults inhabit shallower depths, especially those between 150 and 300 m. In the fall, the fish apparently migrate farther offshore to depths of ~300–420 m.

Toothfish that are dwelling on the bottom, particularly those caught during the summer on the continental slope, eat mainly grenadiers (Macrouridae), but also feed on other smaller fish species and skates (Raja spp.).Fenaughty, J.M.; Stevens, D.W., Hanchet, S.M. (2003). Diet of the Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) from the Ross Sea, Antarctica (CCAMLR Statistical Subarea 88.1). CCAMLR Sci. 10:1–11.

They are strictly marine, so are absent from rivers and lakes. They occur in sandy beaches, muddy enclosed bays, estuaries, off coral reefs and river mouths, and on the upper continental slope to a depth of 1,071 m.Compagno, L.J.V. and Last, P.R. (1999). Narcinidae. Numbfishes. p. 1433-1437. In: K.E. Carpenter and V.H. Niem (eds.) FAO identification guide for fishery purposes.

Gadella maraldi is a benthopelagic fish which can be found on the upper continental slope, over hard substrates at depths ranging from 150–700 m, to 368–748m in the east Ionian Sea. Spawning most likely takes place in the Spring and it has pelagic larvae. Its diet is not known. It attains sexual maturity at a length of 15 cm.

The range of the balloon shark is likely restricted to the waters off the South African province of KwaZulu- Natal and Mozambique. Additional records from the Gulf of Aden and off Vietnam appear to represent different, yet-undescribed species. This common, bottom- dwelling shark inhabits the continental shelf and upper continental slope, at depths of . It favors sandy and muddy substrates.

Profile illustrating the continental shelf, slope and rise A trapped gas deposit on the continental slope off Canada in the Beaufort Sea, located in an area of small conical hills on the ocean floor is just 290 meters below sea level and considered the shallowest known deposit of methane hydrate. However, the ESAS region averages 45 meters in depth, and it is assumed that below the seafloor, sealed by sub-sea permafrost layers, hydrates deposits are located. Seismic observation in 2012 of destabilizing methane hydrate along the continental slope of the eastern United States, following the intrusion of warmer ocean currents, suggests that underwater landslides could release methane. The estimated amount of methane hydrate in this slope is 2.5 gigatonnes (about 0.2% of the amount required to cause the PETM), and it is unclear if the methane could reach the atmosphere.

The northeastern boundary is defined by the Laurentian Channel, where it drops off to . Further south is the continental slope, which sharply drops off to a depth of more than . The southwestern boundary ends at the Northeast Channel, including the Gulf of Maine. The Scotian Shelf is characterized by shallow, offshore banks under the ocean surface, with deep basins and troughs between that vary in depth from .

Members of the family Narkidae are commonly known as sleeper rays. They are restricted to the temperate and tropical Indo-West Pacific from South Africa to Japan to Indonesia, and are exclusively marine and are absent from freshwater habitats. They occur from the intertidal zone to the continental shelf and the upper continental slope to a depth of 350 meters, favoring soft- bottomed habitats.

Oxynotus caribbaeus is a small shark found in the upper continental slope of Venezuela; it is easily distinguishable from other Oxynotus species. Adult males reach a maximum size of in length and the females are thought to grow even longer, although none has been examined. The Caribbean roughshark has a short, blunt snout and head. This chubby-looking shark looks nothing like the typical shark.

Naturalista Siciliano [Il Naturalista Siciliano, Giornale di scienze naturali] v. 6: 163-167, Pl. 3. It is a marine, deep water-dwelling eel which is known from the eastern and western Atlantic Ocean, including Madeira Island, the Gulf of Guinea, the Ligurian Sea, Italy, and Florida and Hawaii, USA. It dwells at a depth range of , and inhabits soft sediments on the continental slope.

Sole at A-Frame DSC04159 Cynoglossus capensis, commonly known as the Sand tonguesole is a species of tonguefish. It is commonly found in southeastern Atlantic Ocean off the south western coast of Africa from the Cunene River to the Cape of Good Hope. It is normally found at depths of no greater than 100m, but it has also been reported on the continental slope.

These waves are greatly affected by coastal amplification (which amplifies the local effect) and radial damping (which reduces the distal effect).McAdoo, B. G. & Watts, P. (2004) Tsunami hazard from submarine landslides on the Oregon continental slope. Marine Geology, 203, 235–245. Recent findings show that the nature of a tsunami is dependent upon volume, velocity, initial acceleration, length and thickness of the contributing landslide.

In the Pacific Ocean, it is known from Japan to China, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and northern Chile. This is a demersal to semipelagic species usually captured at a depth of , but is occasionally found close to the surface (though these reports may represent misidentifications) or down to . It is mainly found on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, and may aggregate around seamounts.

13: 313-361, Pls. 20-25. It is a subtropical, marine eel which is known from the eastern Atlantic Ocean, including southern Portugal, the Mediterranean, and Morocco. It dwells at a depth range of 75–800 metres, and inhabits mud and sand on the continental slope. Males can reach a maximum total length of 60 centimetres, but more commonly reach a TL of 35 centimetres.

Endemic to the southern tip of Africa, the range of the Izak catshark extends from Lüderitz, Namibia in the west to Durban, South Africa in the east. Older records further north along the East African coast (e.g. Somalia) most likely refer to other Holohalaelurus species. This abundant, bottom-dwelling species inhabits the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, from to at least deep.

Native aluminium has been reported in cold seeps in the northeastern continental slope of the South China Sea. It is possible that these deposits resulted from bacterial reduction of tetrahydroxoaluminate Al(OH)4−. Although aluminium is a common and widespread element, not all aluminium minerals are economically viable sources of the metal. Almost all metallic aluminium is produced from the ore bauxite (AlOx(OH)3–2x).

Once common, the greenback stingaree occurs in warm-temperate waters from Portland in Victoria to Stradbroke Island off Queensland, including all of Tasmania. Deeper-living than most other stingarees in the region, this benthic species is mainly found over fine sediment at a depth of on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope. However, it has been reported from as shallow as and as deep as .

The wide stingaree is endemic to southwestern Australia, occurring from Perth, Western Australia to Port Lincoln, South Australia. One of the deeper-living representatives of its family, this benthic species inhabits the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at a depth of . It is most commonly found between down, over sandy areas. There is evidence for some degree of segregation by age and sex.

The Monterey Canyon, one of the largest underwater canyons in the world, begins off the coast of Moss Landing, in the center of Monterey Bay. It is long, although its shape changes regularly because of currents and sediment being left in the area. The canyon is much like that of a continental slope; the biology of the canyon changes significantly in different parts of the canyon.

The carpenter's chimaera exhibits oviparity, with egg shells containing "horns" on them. Males mature at a body length (BDL) of roughly , while females mature at BDL, generally equaling a total length of roughly . Little is known about the species' biology. The chimaera is a marine species, typically found on slanted and flat areas of deep oceans at the continental slope, sometimes extending into the bathyal zone.

MV Liberty Star carrying the DeepWorker 2000 submersible DeepWorker 2000 is a submarine vehicle developed by Nuytco Research, Ltd. It is capable of descending to a depth of 610 m (2001 ft) and remaining submerged for 12 hours. In 1999, it was deployed to the continental shelf and upper continental slope on a five-year mission in association with the National Geographic Society's Sustainable Seas Expeditions.

This was a major tectonic event during the late Cretaceous. This process is called obduction, where Permian to middle Cretaceous continental slope-rise (shallow to deep marine) sedimentary rocks and late Cretaceous oceanic crust (Semail ophiolite) were thrust (obducted) above the rocks from groups one and two. Lastly, group four are late Cretaceous to Miocene shallow marine and terrestrial sedimentary rocks that were deposited on top of all three previous groups.

The blackspot seabream occurs in inshore waters above different types of substrates, rocks, sand and mud. It ranges down to in the Mediterranean but down to in the Atlantic. The young fish are found near the coast while the adults are found on the continental slope, particularly over areas with a muddy substrate. This is an omnivorous species which has a diverse diet of crustaceans, molluscs, and small fish.

Glyptocephalus cynoglossus adults are found on the continental shelf and upper continental slope with a preference for fine sediments such as clay, muddy sand, and pure mud. They also occur where there are deep holes and channels on the continental shelf. They are benthic and occur in fairly deep water, ranging between 45m and 1460m, but mainly at depths between 184m and 366m. This species prefers temperatures of 2-6 °C.

Most live on the continental shelf and continental slope, with some species being found as deep as . Some species move closer to the surface at night, while others live entirely in shallow water and are nocturnal, hiding in rock crevices and caves during the day. Several species are mesopelagic and bathypelagic. Beryciformes' bodies are deep and mildly compressed, typically with large eyes that help them see in darker waters.

A prominent nepheloid layer exists also in the Porcupine Bank.Dickson RR, McCave IN (1986) Nepheloid layers on the continental slope west of Porcupine Bank. Deep Sea Res 33:791–818 Geographically, the nepheloid layers are more detectable and prominent along the Porcupine Bank’s western slope. Both the bottom and intermediate nepheloid layers form due to a myriad of factors such as internal tides, waves, and subsequent bottom erosion.

The little flying squid is found in northern Australia where it occurs in the regions of the continental shelf and upper continental slope. Its distribution extends from the Timor Sea and along the eastern coast of Australia from the Torres Strait south to waters off Brisbane. It has also been recorded in a narrow band extending north from the Timor Sea through the Indonesian archipelago to Mindanao in the southern Philippines.

The spots are darker, containing cordierite and biotite. At St. Ouën's Bay the metamorphosis of greywacke has made hornblende-hornfels. Regional metamorphism has converted the shale to a low greenschist facies, where clay is converted to chlorite. The interpretation of this area is that is a part of the north facing continental slope of Armorica facing a subduction zone, where the Celtic oceanic plate was converging and descending in the trench.

Upper AIW has a high amount of anthropogenic tracers due its exposure to the atmosphere. AIW's tritium and CFC signature is observed in DSOW at the base of the Greenland continental slope. This also showed that the DSOW flowing 450 km to the south was no older than 2 years. Both the DSOW and ISOW flow around the Irminger Basin and Labrador Sea in a deep boundary current.

Neolithodes capensis is a species of king crab which is found in the Southern Ocean and the western Indian Ocean. It has been found to a depth of . They have been found near Cape Point and around the Crozet and Kerguelen Islands in the subantarctic, and they are widespread in the Bellingshausen Sea on the Antarctic continental slope. N. capensis closely resembles Neolithodes yaldwyni, another king crab of the Southern Ocean.

This fish occurs in the tropical and subtropical west Pacific Ocean; its exact range is unclear but includes Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Okinawa (Japan). It is a deep-water species with a patchy distribution and is rarely brought to the surface with fishing gear. Its habitat is the open sea, mostly the outer continental shelf and the upper part of the continental slope at depths of between .

A marine protected area is defined by the IUCN as "A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values". The area protects four deep sea habitat types of the Southwest Indian Ocean lower continental slope and the abyssal plain, and the main feeding habitat of the critically endangered leatherback turtles.

The MPA is off the Northern Cape in the depth region of the continental slope, about 95 nautical miles northwest of Port Nolloth, and comprises three separate areas. The protected areas include the water column, sea bed and subsoil inside the boundaries. Two of the areas have their northwestern boundary on the boundary between the EEZ of South Africa and the EEZ of Namibia. The protected area of ocean is about .

The Helvetic nappes are thrusted over the "Infrahelvetic complex" in eastern Switzerland. The Infrahelvetic complex is composed of autochthonous Mesozoic sediments on top of Hercynian basement rock. The Mesozoic of this unit is contemporary with that of the Helvetic nappes, but deposited further north on the former continental slope and therefore shallower in sedimentary facies. The Infrahelvetic is internally deformed by thrusting and folding that continues into the Hercynian basement.

Merluccius polli is a bathydemersal species that, in the northern part of its range, occurs on the continental shelf and upper continental slope. Females reach sexual maturity when they reach a length of around 44 cm and spawning occurs in the autumn. The most successful recruitment happens between temperatures of 8–11°C. It feeds mainly on small fish but its diet also includes squid and free swimming crustaceans.

The fish are characterized by weak muscles, soft skin, and slimy bodies. The adaptations of some of the fish that live there include small eyes and transparent skin. Except where the ocean is exceptionally deep, the bathyal zone extends to the benthic zone on the ocean bed of that part of the continental slope that lies between 1000 and 4000 meters deep. The bathyal zone contains sharks, squid, octopuses, and many different species of fish.

During the late Miocene, these carbonates were buried by large quantities of clastic sediments originating from the uplift of Sumatra during this time. These sediments deposited faster than the rate of subsidence in the region, creating a continental shelf and slope in the west of the basin. The newly formed continental slope deposited turbidites over the early- middle Miocene sediment that the shelf did not cover. This Sequence is about 1000 meters thick.

About 28.5% of submarine canyons cut back into the edge of the continental shelf, whereas the majority (about 68.5%) of submarine canyons have not managed at all to cut significantly across their continental shelves, having their upstream beginnings or "heads" on the continental slope, below the edge of continental shelves.Harris, P.T., Whiteway, T., 2011. Global distribution of large submarine canyons: geomorphic differences between active and passive continental margins. Marine Geology 285, 69–86.

Most sedimentation in the Adare Basin took place after the second extensional event. Sedimentation offshore Antarctica is primarily driven by pelagic settling, down-slope gravity flows, and across-slope current flows driven by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The continental slope in the Adare Basin is very steep and sinuous, causing turbidite channels to be common. Several Antarctic deep water currents are also responsible for depositing large amounts of sediment into the basin.

Abyssal (or submarine) fans are formed from turbidity currents. These currents begin when a geologic activity pushes sediments over the edge of a continental shelf and down the continental slope, creating an underwater landslide. A dense slurry of muds and sands speeds towards the foot of the slope, until the current slows. The decreasing current, having a reduced ability to transport sediments, deposits the grains it carries, thus creating a submarine fan.

Paristiopterus gallipavo, the yellowspotted boarfish, brown-spotted boarfish, giant boarfish or yellow-spotted penfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, an armourhead from the family Pentacerotidae. It is a carnivorous species which is endemic to the temperate seas of southern Australia where its range extends from Carnarvon, Western Australia to the Investigator Strait in South Australia. It is found at depths down to and it lives on the continental shelf or continental slope.

Map of geomorphic units of the ocean floor within the Australian EEZ There are 1,334 separate geomorphic units in Australia’s waters, in 14 categories. The regions represent distinct areas of geomorphic features that have similar characteristics (e.g. areas of the continental slope that contain canyons, or flat plains). Geomorphic features are determined by bathymetric models (depth analysis) of the ocean floor and provide an important predictor of species assemblages at a large scale.

The Valencia Trough lies between the Mediterranean north east coast of Spain, near Barcelona, and the Balearic Islands. This is a northeast to southwest oriented depression between the continental slope of the Iberian Peninsula and the slope off the shelf around the Balearic Islands. This originally opened between Late Oligocene and early Miocene, at the same time as the Provençal Basin. The continental shelf off the Catalan coast is from six to 30 km wide.

The Austroalpine nappes are fragments of the former continental shelf and continental slope of the Apulian or Adriatic plate. These fragments contain rocks from the continental basement as well as from sedimentary rocks deposited in these environments. The basement rocks have experienced metamorphism related to their original depth in the Earth's crust, but in the Austroalpine nappes Alpine metamorphism (i.e. metamorphism related to the formation of the Alps) is fairly low grade to non-existent.

Typically they consist of a continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise, and abyssal plain. The morphological expression of these features are largely defined by the underlying transitional crust and the sedimentation above it. Passive margins defined by a large fluvial sediment budget and those dominated by coral and other biogenous processes generally have a similar morphology. In addition, the shelf break seems to mark the maximum Neogene lowstand, defined by the glacial maxima.

In a recent study published in August 2019, researchers found that this nearshore species tends to dwell in the upper continental slope in highly sedimented areas, and also in association with rock out crops, authigenic carbonate crust, and mixed substrate areas in depths between 200-929 m. Longnoses inhabited areas with 3–6 °C temperatures. This research came from the first long-scale, long-term assessment of skates in deepwater of the eastern North Pacific.

The Dendrogramma specimens were collected off the south-east coast of Australia during a scientific expedition in 1986. They were collected at water depths of and on the continental slope near Tasmania, using a sled that was dragged over the sea floor to collect bottom-dwelling animals. The researchers were immediately struck by the unusual characteristics of the 18 specimens they collected. These were preserved in formaldehyde, and later in ethanol, for further study.

To the east of this break, the West Indian offshore bioregion comprises the upper and lower continental slope as far north-east as the Cape Vidal break. The abyssal region below this part of the slope is designated as the Indo-Pacific offshore bioregion. North of the Cape Vidal break, the slope is designated as the South-west Indian offshore bioregion. There is no abyssal region within the EEZ this far north.

In the Pacific Ocean, it has been recorded from China to Australia, around Hawaii, and from the Gulf of California to Ecuador. It is reportedly common off Florida, the Bahamas, and the West Indies, and rare off Brazil and in the Mediterranean. The bignose shark is found near the edge of the continental shelf and over the upper continental slope, generally swimming close to the sea floor at depths of . Young sharks may venture into water as shallow as .

202–203 Such faulting can also occur when large masses of non-lithified sediment are deposited on a slope, such as at the front side of a delta or the continental slope. Instabilities in such sediments can result in the deposited material to slump, producing fissures and folding. The resulting structures in the rock are syn-sedimentary folds and faults, which can be difficult to distinguish from folds and faults formed by tectonic forces acting on lithified rocks.

The species of Macrourus are found on the upper- to middle continental slope which are restricted to cold temperate and polar waters in both the North and South Atlantic as well as in the Southern Ocean. They are found at depths from around 200 m to greater than 3,000m. They normally prefer temperatures of between 1°C and 4°C, although on species, the Antarctic roughhead (Macrourus whitsoni), has been collected at temperatures which were slightly below 0°C.

The Urolophidae are a family of rays in the order Myliobatiformes, commonly known as stingarees or round stingrays. This family formerly included the genera Urobatis and Urotrygon of the Americas, which are presently recognized as forming their own family Urotrygonidae. Stingarees are found in the Indo- Pacific region, with the greatest diversity off Australia. They are sluggish, bottom-dwelling fish that have been recorded from shallow waters close to shore to deep waters over the upper continental slope.

The black ghostshark lives in the southwestern Pacific Ocean off the coasts of south-eastern Australia, from Portland, Victoria, to Ulladulla, New South Wales, covering the states of New South Wales, Tasmania, and Victoria. The species also occurs in New Zealand from the West Norfolk Ridge to the Campbell Plateau. In Australia, it lives in waters deep, while it lives at slightly shallower depths in New Zealand, at . The species is found at the continental slope and seamounts.

Marine environment consists of a large number of chemosynthetic symbioses in different regions of the ocean: shallow-water coastal sediments, continental slope sediments, whale and wood falls, cold seeps and deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Organisms from seven phyla (ciliophora, porifera, platyhelminthes, nematoda, mollusca, annelida and arthropoda) are known to have chemosynthetic symbiosis till now. Some of them include nematode, tube worms, clam, sponge, hydrothermal vent shrimp, worms mollusc, mussels and so on. The symbionts can be ectosymbionts or endosymbionts.

The Arabian continental margin formed in the early Paleozoic and possibly the late Proterozoic. After that the thrust sheets are from low to high structurally: the autochthonous units, and the allochthonous units. The allochthonous units, from low to high structurally, are the Sumeini group, the Hawasina complex, the Haybi complex, the Ophiolite, and the Batinah complex. From the Sumeini group to the Haybi Complex make up the continental slope with an age range from Middle Triassic to Late Cretaceous.

The shelf area is commonly subdivided into the inner continental shelf, mid continental shelf, and outer continental shelf, each with their specific geomorphology and marine biology. The character of the shelf changes dramatically at the shelf break, where the continental slope begins. With a few exceptions, the shelf break is located at a remarkably uniform depth of roughly ; this is likely a hallmark of past ice ages, when sea level was lower than it is now.Gross 43.

Though specific data is lacking, trawl surveys have shown that stingaree catches from the New South Wales upper continental slope declined over 65% between 1976-77 and 1996-77\. Given that SESSF activity within its range remains high, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the sandyback stingaree as Vulnerable. This species would potentially benefit from the implementation of the 2004 Australian National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.

The family Homolidae, known as carrier crabsFamily Homolidae - carrier crabs at sealifebase.org or porter crabs,Family Homolidae (Porter crabs) at the Marine Species Identification Portal contains 14 genera of marine crabs. They mostly live on the continental slope and continental shelf, and are rarely encountered. Members of the Homolidae have their fifth pereiopods (last pair of walking legs) in a sub-dorsal position, which allows them to hold objects in place over the rear half of the carapace.

Diapirism is commonly used as a basic concept in geological surveyS.R. PATERSON, R. H. VERNON O. T. TOBISCH (1989) "A review of criteria for the identification of magmatic and tectonic foliations in granitoids", Journal of Structural Geology, Vol. 1. No 3, pp. 349-363.H.H. Roberts, P. Aharon (1994) "Hydrocarbon-derived carbonate buildups of the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope: A review of submersible investigations" Geo-Marine Letters, 14:135-148 as well as in Planetary science.

The whitefin swellshark (Cephaloscyllium albipinnum) is a little-known species of catshark, belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to southeastern Australia. It is found down, on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope. Reaching in length, this shark has a very thick body and a short, broad, flattened head with a large mouth. It is characterized by a dorsal color pattern of dark saddles and blotches over a brown to gray background, and light fin margins.

Wynn, R.B., Talling, P.J., Masson, D.G., Le Bas, T.P., Cronin, B.T. and Stevenson, C.J., 2012. The influence of subtle gradient changes on deep- water gravity flows: a case study from the Moroccan turbidite system. In, Prather, Bradford E., Deptuck, Mark E., Mohrig, David, Van Hoorn, Berend and Wynn, Russell B. (eds.) Application of the Principles of Seismic Geomorphology to Continental-Slope and Base-of-Slope Systems: Case Studies from Seafloor and Near-Seafloor Analogues. SEPM Special Publication 99.

Their formation and growth patterns have been hotly debated and multiple hypotheses have been proposed. One hypothesis connects their formation to the seepage of hydrocarbons, either along faults or from former gas-hydrate layers, as a response to glacial-interglacial changes in current patterns and sea levels. Another hypothesis relates their distribution to nutrient fluxes driven by specific oceanic conditions, notably the interaction of internal waves, formed at the boundary between different water masses, with the continental slope.

The extant members of the class live only in the deep ocean (the abyssal zone, the continental shelf, and the continental slope) at depths below . Cambrian forms predominately lived in shallow seas, whereas later Paleozoic forms are more commonly found in deeper waters with soft, muddy sea floors. Although superficially resembling limpets when viewed dorsally, monoplacophorans are not anatomically similar to gastropods. Some similarities are shared with the chitons, such as having segmented anatomy (organs arranged in series).

The porcupine crab is found on muddy bottoms on the continental slope in deep waters of the North Atlantic. In the western Atlantic, it ranges from eastern Canada and Greenland south as far as North Carolina in the United States. In the eastern Atlantic, it ranges from Iceland to Madeira, Portugal and Cape Verde, including the Porcupine Seabight and Rockall Trough off Ireland. It has been recorded at depths of , but mostly at in water that is about .

In the eastern Atlantic, the snubnosed eel is known from France to Madeira and the Azores, as well as from off Cape Verde and South Africa. In the western Atlantic, it has been captured off the coast of the United States. In the Pacific, it occurs off Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Hawaii. They have been recorded from , but are usually found between on the continental slope, in water temperatures of 4–9 °C (39–48 °F).

Jonah crabs have been reported at depths of up to 750 m. Habitat preferences for Cancer borealis range from rocky substrate in Rhode Island and the Gulf of Maine to silt and clay substrate on the continental slope. It is widely accepted that this species moves offshore in the fall and winter, and females have been documented moving inshore in late spring and summer. The Jonah crab is known to move to areas of preferred temperature for behavioral thermoregulation.

The blotched catshark has been recorded from North Carolina southward to the Santaren Channel between Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, as well as in the Cayman Trench off northern Jamaica, and in the Gulf of Mexico north of the Yucatan Peninsula. This rare shark inhabits the upper continental slope, at a depth of . A bottom-dwelling species, blotched catsharks are usually found amongst deepwater coral banks composed largely of Lophelia pertusa.Ross, S.W., K.J. Sulak and M.S. Nizinski (2003).

The Panama Hake is a demersal, bathypelagic species which occurs from the shallow continental shelf at 80m to the upper continental slope as deep as 500m, as well as in the ocean's midwaters and over sea mounts such as Uncle Sam Bank. It has pelagic eggs and larvae and feeds on fish and invertebrates. It spawns from April to June or even later. they reach sexual maturity when they attain a length of 18 to 19 cm.

The giant red shrimp is a deep-water. benthopelagic species and has a reported depth distribution of 120–1300 m, generally on muddy bottoms, in the Mediterranean it shows a preference for quite deep waters, mainly 500-800m, but it is more likely than related species to be found in shallower waters. It is known to gather in large aggregations in submarine canyons and trenches along the continental slope. Only a few individuals reproduce in their first year.

Shaded relief image of seven submarine canyons imaged on the continental slope off New York, using multibeam echosounder data, the Hudson Canyon is the furthest to the left Perspective view shaded relief image of the San Gabriel and Newport submarine canyons off Los Angeles The Congo Canyon off southwestern Africa, about 300 km visible in this view Heavily canyoned northern margin to the Biscay abyssal plain, with the Whittard Canyon highlighted Bering Sea showing the larger of the submarine canyons that cut the margin Sketch showing the main elements of a submarine canyon A submarine canyon is a steep-sided valley cut into the seabed of the continental slope, sometimes extending well onto the continental shelf, having nearly vertical walls, and occasionally having canyon wall heights of up to 5 km, from canyon floor to canyon rim, as with the Great Bahama Canyon.Shepard, F.P., 1963. Submarine Geology. Harper & Row, New York Just as above-sea-level canyons serve as channels for the flow of water across land, submarine canyons serve as channels for the flow of turbidity currents across the seafloor.

Giant grenadier, an elongate benthic fish with large eyes and well-developed lateral lines Demersal fish live on or near the bottom of the sea.Walrond C Carl . "Coastal fish – Fish of the open sea floor" Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 Demersal fish are found by the seafloor in coastal areas on the continental shelf, and in the open ocean they are found along the outer continental margin on the continental slope and the continental rise.

The general slope of the continental rise is between 0.5 degrees and 1.0 degrees. Deposition of sediments at the mouth of submarine canyons may form enormous fan-shaped accumulations called submarine fans on both the continental slope and continental rise. Beyond the continental rise stretches the abyssal plain, an extremely deep and flat area of the sea floor. The abyssal plain hosts many unique life forms which are uniquely adapted to survival in its cold, high pressure, and dark conditions.

During the 9th five-year plan (1998-2002), the Centre co-ordinated the first systematic study of marine life along the Indian shelf waters, along the eastern and western coasts of India. The environmental characteristics of this region and the phytoplankton, zooplankton, marine benthos, fishery resources etc. of this region were systematically characterized for the first time. During the 10th five-year plan (2002-2007) the exploration was extended to the continental slope regions, particularly in the case of marine benthos and fisheries.

The black dogfish (Centroscyllium fabricii) is a species of dogfish shark in the family Etmopteridae. It is common over the outer continental shelf and continental slope at depths of . Females generally inhabit deeper water than males, and depending on the region, smaller sharks may occur at different depths than larger ones. This species is distributed widely in the Atlantic Ocean, from Greenland and Iceland to Virginia and West Africa in the north, and off southwestern Africa and Argentina in the south.

In the southwest, it has been recorded from the Beagle Channel at the southern tip of Argentina. Inhabiting the outer continental shelf and continental slope, the black dogfish is found mostly near the bottom in water deep. It is most common at depths of off Iceland, in the Rockall Trough, off Greenland, off northern Canada, and below off southern Africa. The species may venture closer to the surface in the northern extreme of its range, particularly during the dark, cold winter months.

The thinlip splitfin is a bathypelagic fish which occurs near muddy bottoms at depths of . It is a predator of crustaceans such as euphasiids, mysids and decapods as well as fish and cephalopods. The species from the family Acropomatidae form loose aggregations normally near the bottom and some of them undertake a nocturnal migration towards the surface of the sea. The highest biomass density was recorded during a survey using a bottom trawl over the upper continental slope off of Angola.

The green lanternshark (Etmopterus virens) is a species of dogfish shark in the family Etmopteridae, found in the western central Atlantic Ocean. This species usually occurs on the upper continental slope below a depth of . Reaching in length, the green lanternshark has a slender body with a long, thin tail and low, conical dermal denticles on its flanks. It is dark brown or gray with ventral black coloration, which contain light-emitting photophores that may serve a cryptic and/or social function.

The Atlantic pygmy skate lives in the Atlantic Ocean, with its distribution ranging as far north as Nicaragua and as far south as northern Brazil. In total, it covers the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela. The species is bathydemersal and lives on the continental slope. Little is known about the species' population and threats; therefore, no conservation actions are currently taking place for the species and it is listed as data deficient by IUCN as of 2007.

Ornithoteuthis volatilis inhabits tropical slopes and oceanic waters where the adults range from the surface waters at night to moderate depths. They occur near the botton in the bathyal zone but in midwater above the continental slope and above sea mounts and ridges. The paralarvae and juveniles can also be found in midwater above great depths at the equator. It has very small eggs less than 1mm in diameter and spawning is intermittent with several egg masses laid over an extended period.

F. curvatum occurs in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, but is also known from the southwestern Pacific Ocean and the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. It occurs on the continental slope, but it appears to have a disjunct distribution, with gaps between the various locations in which it has been found. It is a deep water coral, an azooanthellate species, the tissues of which do not harbour symbiotic algae. Its depth range is , with breeding corals off the west Antarctic Peninsula being at around .

The greenback stingaree (Urolophus viridis) is a little-known species of stingray in the family Urolophidae, endemic to the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope off southeastern Australia. Growing to a length of , this species has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc wider than long and uniformly light green in color above. Between its nostrils is a skirt-shaped curtain of skin. Its tail bears skin folds on either side and a deep, lanceolate caudal fin, but lacks a dorsal fin.

Main bathymetric features of the NW 350px The Sigsbee Escarpment is a major bathymetric feature of the Gulf of Mexico, extending for about . It separates the lower continental slope of the northern gulf from the abyssal plain of the Sigsbee Deep and has up to of relief across it. It has formed as a result of salt tectonics, due to the effects of loading of a thick layer of Jurassic halite (Louann Salt) by Upper Jurassic to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks.

Alaska has 3,708 recorded species of marine macroinvertebrates inhabiting the marine waters from the intertidal zone, the continental shelf, and upper continental slope to abyssal depths, from the Beaufort Sea at the Arctic border with Yukon, Canada; the eastern Chukchi Sea, the eastern Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands to the western border with Russia; and the Gulf of Alaska to Dixon Entrance at the southern border with British Columbia. Among the more commonly encountered are various species of shrimp, crab, lobster, and sponge.

The longfin boarfish (Zanclistius elevatus), also known as the blackspot boarfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, an armourhead from the family Pentacerotidae which is native to the coasts of southern Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. It can be found over the continental shelf and the continental slope at depths from . This species can reach a length of . It can also be found in the aquarium trade, and is currently the only known member of the genus Zanclistius.

The CGSN is made up of two coastal arrays and four global arrays. Coastal arrays provide sustained, adaptable access to complex coastal systems. Coastal arrays extend from the continental shelf to the continental slope, allowing scientists to examine coastal processes including upwelling, hypoxia, shelf break fronts, and the role of filaments and eddies in cross-shelf exchange. Technologies that gather data in the coastal region include moored buoys with fixed sensors, moored vertical profilers, seafloor cables, gliders and autonomous underwater vehicles.

The saddled swellshark (Cephaloscyllium variegatum) is a rare species of catshark, and part of the family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to Eastern Australia. This bottom-dwelling species is found on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at a depth of . It is a robustly built shark with a short, broad, flattened head and a capacious mouth. Adults are patterned with saddles on a brownish or grayish background, which varies between tropical and temperate sharks; juveniles are light-colored with many spots.

The speckled swellshark (Cephaloscyllium speccum) is a little-known species of catshark, and part of the family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to the waters off northwestern Australia. It occurs on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, at a depth of . This species grows to long and has a stocky body and a short, broad, flattened head. As its common name suggests, its color pattern consists of many dark spots and white-spotted dark saddles and blotches on a light gray background.

Methane ice at Southern Hydrate Ridge has been found within the shallow sediments, and more rarely exposed on the seafloor. Because Southern Hydrate Ridge is located on the upper continental slope, the regional hydrate stability zone (RHSZ), which is controlled by the sediment pore pressure and temperatureBangs, N. L., Musgrave, R. J., & Tréhu, A. M. (2005). Upward shifts in the southern Hydrate Ridge gas hydrate stability zone following postglacial warming, offshore Oregon. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 110(B3).

The geographic habitat of the fish has been registered around the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern parts of the Atlantic Ocean. This geographic range starts northwards Morocco and extends to the northern areas of Norway and Iceland in the Northern North Sea. Within these geological areas, the depth range of C. monstrosa is , but it is most abundant in upper to middle continental slope habitats at depths of . Within these parameters, the water temperatures of the species habitats are most commonly in the range .

They also contain layers of hemipelagic limestones, conglomerates, carbonaceous breccias as well as olistoliths. Sedimentation of the Kulm facies started in the East already at the Viséan/Serpukhovian boundary (Namurian), but west of the Gallégo river, it started only at the beginning of the Pennsylvanian (Upper Westphalian, Bashkirian). In the Basque Pyrenees, the Kulm sedimentation perdured into the Moskovian. The Kulm sediments were deposited as canyon deposits on the continental slope or as submarine fans in a southwest migrating foredeep of the Variscan orogen.

The night shark (Carcharhinus signatus) is a species of requiem shark, in the family Carcharhinidae, found in the temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean. An inhabitant of the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, this shark most commonly occurs at depths of and conducts a diel vertical migration, spending the day in deeper water and moving into shallower waters at night. Off northeastern Brazil, large numbers congregate around seamounts of varying depths. A slender, streamlined species, the night shark typically reaches a length of .

While many oceanic plateaus are composed of continental crust, and often form a step interrupting the continental slope, some plateaus are undersea remnants of large igneous provinces. Continental crust has the highest amount of silicon (such rock is called felsic). Oceanic crust has a smaller amount of silicon (mafic rock). The anomalous volcanism associated with the formation of oceanic plateaux at the time of the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (90.4 million years) ago may have been responsible for the environmental disturbances that occurred at that time.

Analysis suggests that taraxerol dominates the inside and the total composition of R. racemosa leaves (7.7 mg/g leaf). As a result, increase in taraxerol level relative to other higher plant biomarkers in sediments should indicate when and where Rhizophora contributes substantially. In the most part of SE Atlantic, taraxerol/normal C29 alkanes (n-C29) ratio in surface sediments is low. High ratios are observed in a zone along the continental slope, in which maxima always occur near present-day on shore mangrove trees.

They are usually found near the bottom in rocky, boulder-strewn regions on continental shelves and the upper continental slope, as well as around submarine ridges and mountains. The species has been reported near the drop-offs of rocky or coral reefs and in the upper layers of the open ocean. In the Mediterranean, smalltooth sand tigers occur at depths less than 250 m (820 ft), including at depths accessible to divers. They have been seen swimming over sandy flats at Cocos Island and Fernando de Noronha.

Various authors have reported the size at maturity as between for males and for females, reflecting differences between geographical areas. Off northern Canada, females give birth in the portion of the Laurentian Channel less than deep. As the young grow, they migrate into the deeper parts of the Channel, and eventually a long distance northward over the Grand Banks or the Labrador Shelf, to the deep continental slope. This movement pattern has not been observed in black dogfish inhabiting adjacent waters off western Greenland.

The Sonoma Valley is part of the Coast Range Physiographic provence. Basement rocks that make up the valley at great depth are the Great Valley Sequence shale, sandstone and conglomerate deposited in a continental slope- to abysmal plain environment via turbidite flows. The Cretaceous Great Valley Sequence overlies and contacts the Franciscan Complex along the Coast Range Thrust. The Jurassic-Cretaceous Franciscan Complex includes crumpled, uplifted terranes that have resulted from the subduction of the former oceanic Farallon Plate under the North American continent.

Late Neogene Ice Drainage Changes in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica and the interaction of Antarctic ice sheet evolution and climate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 245, 390-410. During the late Neogene, the Lambert Glacier–Amery Ice Shelf drainage system flowed across Prydz Bay in an ice stream that reached the shelf edge and built a trough mouth fan on the upper continental slope. The fan consists mostly of debris flow deposits derived from the melting out of subglacial debris at the grounding line at the continental shelf edge.

The Indus Fan One of the most significant depositional feature of the offshore Indus basin is the Indus Fan. It is the second largest fan system in the world after the Bengal fan between India, Bangladesh and the Andaman Islands. The Indus fan was deposited in an unconfined setting on the continental slope, rise and basin floor, covering much of the Arabian Sea. The entire fan extends over an area of 110,000 square kilometers with greater than 9 km of sediment accumulating near the toe-of-slope.

Glacial marine processes have deposited two different units within the region. One of the units comprises proglacial debris flows have deposited a matrix-supported diamicton with interbeds of laminated mud on the lower portion of the continental slope. The other depositional process is a mixture of rain out from the ice from either melting or instantaneous dumping from the surface of an overturned portion of ice, and from marine rain out. The terrigenous and biogenic material compounds together to form sandy muds with sparse clasts.

The Chesterfield Island stingaree or Deforge's stingaree (Urolophus deforgesi) is a little-known species of stingray in the family Urolophidae, endemic to the continental slope off the Chesterfield Islands. Reaching long, it has a rounded, diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc colored plain brown above and pale below, with a short head. There is a narrow, skirt-shaped curtain of skin between its nostrils. Its tail is relatively long and terminates in a leaf- shaped caudal fin; there are no dorsal fin or lateral skin folds.

The species in this family are mainly benthopelagic, they are found at depths of 200–2000 m, they occur on the sea bed and have a wide distribution from the Arctic to the Antarctic. The species in the Macrouridae normally live near the sea bed on the continental slope, however, some species are bathypelagic or mesopelagic, other species occur on the outer continental shelf. Their bodies are loose in texture rather than firm and they are weak swimmers. Some species are of commercial importance to fisheries.

The reduction in upwelling leads to fish kills off the shore of Peru. The local fishing industry along the affected coastline can suffer during long-lasting El Niño events. The world's largest fishery collapsed due to overfishing during the 1972 El Niño Peruvian anchoveta reduction. During the 1982–83 event, jack mackerel and anchoveta populations were reduced, scallops increased in warmer water, but hake followed cooler water down the continental slope, while shrimp and sardines moved southward, so some catches decreased while others increased.

The deepsea skate (Bathyraja abyssicola) is a species of softnose skate, in the family Arhynchobatidae, found in deep water from 362 to 2,906 m, usually on the continental slope. They are distributed from off northern Baja California around Coronado Island and Cortes Bank, north to the Bering Sea, and west to Japan. It is fairly common below 1,000 m, and is taken as bycatch in deepwater trawls and traps. The species name abyssicola comes from the Greek abyssos meaning "bottomless", and cola meaning "living at depths".

Marine canyons are magnets for sediment because as currents carry sediment on the shelf in the alongshore direction, the path of the current crosses canyons perpendicularly. When the same amount of water flow is suddenly in much deeper water it slows down and deposits sediment. Due to the extreme depositional environment, carbon burial rates in the Nazare Canyon near Portugal are 30 times greater than the adjacent continental slope. This canyon alone accounts for about 0.03% of global terrestrial organic carbon burial in marine sediments.

Gadella is a genus of morid cod. The species in this genus are characterised by the absence of a chin barbell, an anterior dorsal fin with 7-11 rays, a long based anal fin which has a straight profile, the outermost rays of the pelvic fin are filamentous and extend a small distance beyond the membrane. They do not have a photophore. The Gadella codlings are found around the tropical and subtropical seas around the world on the outer continental shelf to the mid continental slope.

The lollipop catshark (Cephalurus cephalus) is a little-known species of deep sea catshark, belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae, and the only described member of its genus. A diminutive, bottom-dwelling shark of the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope, this species can be readily identified by its tadpole-like shape with a greatly expanded, rounded head and narrow body. The large head houses expanded gills, which are thought to be an adaptation for hypoxic conditions. This shark preys on crustaceans and fishes.

Hector's lanternfish (Lampanyctodes hectoris) is a lanternfish in the family Myctophidae, the only species in the genus Lampanyctodes. It is named after James Hector. It is a widespread marine fish, known from shallow tropical waters in the south-eastern Atlantic, from the western Pacific off Australia and New Zealand, and from the eastern Pacific off Chile. It is one of the few species of lanternfishes to inhabit shallow waters, and in those waters it is one of the most abundant species of fish, and central to the food chain of the upper continental slope.

A Burgess Shale trilobite showing soft-part preservation Burgess Shale type deposits occur either on the continental slope or in a sedimentary basin. They are known in sediments deposited at all water depths during the Precambrian (Riphean stage onwards), with a notable gap in the last 150 million years of the Proterozoic. They become increasingly restricted to deep waters in the Cambrian. In order for soft tissue to be preserved, its volatile carbon framework must be replaced by something able to survive the rigours of time and burial.

It is generally accepted that AIW is formed and modified in the north part of Arctic domain. As AIW moves from north to south along the Greenland continental slope, its temperature and salinity, on the whole, decrease southwards due to mixing with surface cold water. The lower AIW is produced by the cooling and sinking of Atlantic Water (AW), which is traditionally defined with salinity greater than 35, and by the Polar Intermediate Water (PIW) that is colder than 0 °C with salinity in the range 34.4-34.7.

It extends beneath sedimentary cover on Staten Island and southward beneath the Coastal Plain of New Jersey. In general, basement rocks to the west of Cameron's Line are regarded as autochthonous, meaning that they have not been significantly displaced by tectonic processes. The rocks to the west of Cameron's Line include metamorphosed sedimentary material originally comprising ancient continental slope, rise, and shelf deposits. The rocks to the east of Cameron's Line are allochthonous, which means they have been shoved westward over autochthonous basement rocks on the order of many tens or even hundreds of kilometers.

Along the continental margins of the Arctic Ocean basin, narrow boundary currents are hypothesized to house intense large-scale advection that is critical in the general circulation of Arctic waters. From the Bering Strait, Pacific Ocean waters flow counterclockwise (cyclonically) along the northern shores of Canada, passing through the Lincoln Sea. Atlantic Ocean waters cyclonically flow in from and return to the Eurasian basin along the Greenland Sea continental slope. The waters of these basins converge at the Lincoln Sea, creating unique vertical temperature and salinity profiles here.

A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves has been exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf. The continental margin, between the continental shelf and the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter continental rise, in which sediment from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope.

EZ company was a major employer in Hobart and an important part of the Tasmanian economy. Trove summary of materials relating to works either by or about the company and its operations Pollution from the works was an issue for the company, and successor companies that operated the works as well as disposal of waste out to sea.Harris, P. T., O'Brien, P. E., Quilty, P., McMinn, A., Holdway, D., Exon, N. F., Hill, P. J., Wilson, C. W., 1999. "Sedimentation and continental slope processes in the vicinity of an ocean waste disposal site, southeastern Tasmania".

Updated 2 March 2009 They occupy the sea floors and lake beds, which usually consist of mud, sand, gravel or rocks. In coastal waters they are found on or near the continental shelf, and in deep waters they are found on or near the continental slope or along the continental rise. They are not generally found in the deepest waters, such as abyssal depths or on the abyssal plain, but they can be found around seamounts and islands. The word demersal comes from the Latin demergere, which means to sink.

In regions with both "giant" and "supergiant" species, the former mainly live on the continental slope, while the latter mainly live on the bathyal plain. Although Bathynomus have been recorded in water as warm as , they are primarily found in much colder places. For example, during a survey of the deep-sea fauna of Exuma Sound in the Bahamas, B. giganteus was found to be common in water between , but more abundant towards the lower temperature. In contrast, preliminary studies indicate that B. doederleinii stops feeding when the temperature falls below .

Flowing south along the South American continental slope, the Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) carries North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) into the South Atlantic. At about 8°S and at a depth of , the DWBC breaks into anticyclonic eddies during periods of strong meridional overturning circulation. One such NADW eddy was observed in 2003 and the researchers speculated that a deeply penetrating Agulhas ring pinched it off the NADW slope current. Spinning at , these deep-water eddies move around the southern tip of the Agulhas Bank and into the Indian Ocean.

The butterfly stingaree (Urolophus papilio) is a little-known species of stingray in the family Urolophidae, endemic to the continental slope off the Chesterfield Islands. This species is characterized by a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc much wider than long, and a rather short tail terminating in a leaf-shaped caudal fin, as well as bearing a dorsal fin and sometimes indistinct lateral skin folds. There is a skirt-shaped flap of skin between its nostrils. It is plain yellowish to brownish above, and reaches a length of at least .

The greenback stingaree and the sandyback stingaree (U. bucculentus) are the most common stingarees in the trawl bycatch of the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery (SESSF), operating on the upper continental slope off New South Wales. The New South Wales Oceanic Prawn Trawl Fishery and the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery also operate within the geographical and depth range of this species. Because of its deepwater habits, the greenback stingaree is unlikely to survive capture, and the process also often causes it to abort any gestating young.

The bottlenose skate is found along the coastlines of the eastern Atlantic Ocean, from the southern British Isles to South Africa, including the Mediterranean, and extending into the southwestern Indian Ocean to Mozambique. It is listed as occurring in the northwestern European seas, but no valid records exist for the northern areas of the northeast Atlantic. It is a benthic species of sandy and detrital bottoms, at depths of 40–400 m (exceptionally down to 500 m) from coastal regions to the upper continental slope. (1974) reported that it is more prevalent in rocky habitats.

Duncker's pipehorse (Solegnathus dunckeri), also known as the nose-ridge pipefish, red-and-gold pipehorse, red-hair pipefish or spiny sea dragon, is a species of fish in the family Syngnathidae. It is endemic to eastern Australia and Lord Howe Island. It is a pelagic species which is found in the waters of the continental shelf and the continental slope. Fishermen within its range report that it is caught where there are hard substrates such as hard sand, shale, sandstone or gravel and they are often caught alongside gorgonians, black corals, algae or sponges .

Marine ecoregions of the South African Exclusive Economic Zone (redefined 2011) The marine ecoregions of the South African exclusive economic zone are a set of geographically delineated regions of similar ecological characteristics on a fairly broad scale, covering the exclusive economic zone along the South African coast. There were originally five inshore bioregions over the continental shelf and four offshore bioregions covering the continental slope and abyssal regions. These bioregions are used for conservation research and planning. They were defined in the South African National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment of 2004.

This is followed by a sturdy outflux in winter, which wanes by the month of April. Although the surface flow through PC is generally inward during summer monsoon, the preceding and succeeding months experience outflow (strong outflow in October, but weak outflow in April). During April and October, when the effects of local winds are minimal, Andaman Sea experiences the intensification of meridional surface currents in the poleward direction along the continental slope on the eastern side of the basin. This is characteristic of the propagation of Kelvin Waves.

South Tasman Rise Commonwealth Marine Reserve is a 27,704 km2 marine protected area located at the southerly limit of Australia's exclusive economic zone near Tasmania. The reserve was established in 2007 and is part of the South- east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network. The reserve contains part of the South Tasman Rise seafloor and covers deep ocean including a section of the mid-continental slope at depths of . Some of the seamounts within the reserve have flat summits, which indicates that they were exposed above the surface at some time.

This species has a patchy and discontinuous distribution in northeastern Atlantic. It is found from southern Ireland and England to Senegal, and in the western Mediterranean. It is uncommon overall but can be locally abundant, mainly around the north-west of Ireland, in the eastern side of the English Channel, and near the south coast of Portugal. Like other rays, is usually found on sandy, muddy or detrital bottoms, at depths of 50–200 m from coastal regions to the upper continental slope, even if it's sometimes possible to find it in shallower water.

The seamount lies in the southern Rockall Trough, at the foot of the Scottish continental slope and west-southwest of Barra Head, Hebrides. It is the smallest of three seamounts in the Rockall Trough; the other two are Anton Dohrn Seamount and Rosemary Bank both north of Hebrides Terrace Seamount, and farther west is the Rockall Bank. It straddles the political border between the United Kingdom and Ireland. The Hebrides Terrace Seamount is a volcanic guyot, a seamount with a flat top and steep slopes, that rises to a depth of about .

Yellowmouth rockfish are an east Pacific saltwater species that range from the Gulf of Alaska to San Francisco, California, and are commonly found from southeast Alaska to Oregon. Yellowmouth rockfish are widely distributed along the west coast of Canada, with highest densities in Queen Charlotte Sound. Yellowmouth rockfish are estimated to inhabit 11,000 to 34,000 of the estimated 48,000 square kilometers of potential habitat available to them in Canada. Yellowmouth rockfish occur along the continental slope at depths of 100 to 431 meters, with a preferred range of 180 to 275 meters.

Possibly a widely distributed deep-water catshark found along the Australian continental slope at depths of 590 to 1,000 m, it consists of several distinct populations which may be separate species. Although part of the distribution includes heavily fished areas, particularly off southeastern Australia, much of its range is in unfished areas. Given the taxonomic uncertainty of the separate populations, it is not possible to assess the conservation status of this species at this time. However, deep-water demersal trawl fisheries are expanding in the region, and the situation should be reassessed following taxonomic clarification.

The North Icelandic Jet is a deep-reaching current that flows along the continental slope of Iceland. The North Icelandic Jet advects overflow water into the Denmark Strait and constitutes a pathway that is distinct from the East Greenland Current. It is a cold current that runs west across the top of Iceland, then southwest between Greenland and Iceland at a depth of about 600 metres (almost 2,000 feet). The North Icelandic Jet is deep and narrow (about 12 mile wide) and can carry more than a million cubic meters of water per second.

In addition to these two currents, a large submarine canyon acts as a primary conduit for the transfer of sediment from the continental slope to the deep- sea. Organisms living in the depths of Barkley Canyon have evolved to be able to persist in areas with high pressure, no light, and low nutrients/food availability. The Barkley Canyon instruments span a diversity of habitats, each of which is associated with its own specialized biological community. Most of the areas within Barkley Canon are characterised by a soft, finely sedimented seafloor.

Large, mature, older fish have been caught among the seamounts of the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, a location thus thought to be important for spawning. Smaller, subadult Antarctic toothfish tend to concentrate in shallower waters on the continental shelf, while a large portion of the older fish are found on in the continental slope. This sequestering by size and age could be another adaptation for small fish to avoid being eaten by large ones. The recruitment potential of Antarctic toothfish, a measure of both fecundity and survival to spawning age, is not known.

Transport is also caused by glaciers as they flow, and on terrestrial surfaces under the influence of wind. Sediment transport due only to gravity can occur on sloping surfaces in general, including hillslopes, scarps, cliffs, and the continental shelf—continental slope boundary. Sediment transport is important in the fields of sedimentary geology, geomorphology, civil engineering and environmental engineering (see applications, below). Knowledge of sediment transport is most often used to determine whether erosion or deposition will occur, the magnitude of this erosion or deposition, and the time and distance over which it will occur.

The banded bellowsfish is a bathydemersal species of the continental shelf and the continental slope, found at depths of , although this range is restricted to between and off Australia. Unlike the seashorses and pipefishes, this species is oviparous, laying eggs which develop and hatch outside the body. It is carnivorous and preys on epibenthic invertebrates. Off Tasmania, it was found to prey mainly on benthic crustaceans and brittle stars, with the brittle stars making up most of the fish's diet, but it was also found to eat Hector's lanternfish (Lampanyctodes hectoris).

The canyon begins inland on the continent, partway up the Congo Estuary, and starts at a depth of 21 meters. It cuts across the entire continental shelf for 85 kilometers until it reaches the shelf edge, then continues down the slope and ends 280 km from where it started. At its deepest point, the V-shaped canyon walls are 1100 meters tall, and the maximum width of the canyon is about 9 miles. At the bottom of the continental slope, it enters the Congo deep-sea fan and extends for an additional 220 km.

Only in 1946 he became a full professor, during the German occupation in World War II the nazis had prevented this because he had British ancestors. The same year he became member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Kuenen is known particularly for his work on marine geology and he published a book on the subject. Some of his other contributions to geology were geochemical calculations about sediments and the water cycle and research on absolute and relative sea level changes, the rounding of sediment particles, normal faulting in the continental slope domain and especially turbidites and turbidity currents.

Lanternfish are well known for their diel vertical migrations: during daylight hours, most species remain within the gloomy bathypelagic zone, between deep, but towards sundown, the fish begin to rise into the epipelagic zone, between deep. The lanternfish are thought to do this to avoid predation, and because they are following the diel vertical migrations of zooplankton, upon which they feed. After a night spent feeding in the surface layers of the water column, the lanternfish begin to descend back into the lightless depths and are gone by daybreak. Most species remain near the coast, schooling over the continental slope.

The geologic boundaries of the coast range formation extend from southwest Washington state in the north to around the Coquille River in the south where the older and taller Klamath Mountains begin. In the east the mountains begin as foothills forming the western edge of the Willamette Valley and continue west to the coastline and beyond where the basalt formation tapers off into the continental shelf and ends at the continental slope with several banks and basins off shore. Physiographically, they are a section of the larger Pacific Border province, which in turn are part of the larger Pacific Mountain System physiographic division.

The leopard catshark inhabits the temperate and subtropical inshore waters off South Africa, from Saldanha Bay in the west to the mouth of the Tugela River in the east. There are old and almost certainly erroneous records from Mauritius and Madagascar. Given the color pattern diversity within the species, its range is likely fragmented into a number of small local populations along the South African coast. Bottom-dwelling in nature, the leopard catshark is most commonly encountered from the intertidal zone to a depth of , though it has been reported from as deep as on the uppermost portion of the continental slope.

The orange bellowsfish (Notopogon fernandezianus) is a species of fish of the family Macroramphosidae, found around South America, at depths of . Its length is up to . The orange bellowsfish is a bathydemersal species which occurs over the continental shelf and continental slope off the subtropical coasts of South America, in the south-eastern Pacific from Juan Fernández to the Nazca and the Isla Salas y Gómez while in the south western Atlantic it ranges from southern Brazil to Argentina. It is not known to be subject to any threats and is therefore listed by the IUCN as Least Concern.

The crossback stingaree is found close to the sea floor. The distribution of the crossback stingaree mainly encompasses the coastal waters of Victoria and Tasmania, where it is quite abundant; it ranges as far east as Jervis Bay in New South Wales, and as far west as Beachport in South Australia. Bottom-dwelling in nature, this species has been reported from the intertidal zone to a depth of on the upper continental slope. Rays of the Victorian subpopulation prefer sandy flats and rocky reefs and are seldom seen in less than of water, occurring most commonly at depths greater than .

In the northeast Atlantic, the sei whale winters as far south as West Africa such as off Bay of Arguin, off coastal Western Sahara and follows the continental slope northward in spring. Large females lead the northward migration and reach the Denmark Strait earlier and more reliably than other sexes and classes, arriving in mid-July and remaining through mid-September. In some years, males and younger females remain at lower latitudes during the summer. Despite knowing some general migration patterns, exact routes are incompletely known and scientists cannot readily predict exactly where groups will appear from one year to the next.

They also feed to a large extent on myctophids (lantern fish), which only occur at the surface at night in water over the continental slope. Individuals have been observed to feed at distances up to 1000 km from their breeding colony. A breeding individual stores energy-rich lipids in a sac anterior to its stomach, which is used to either sustain itself while incubating its single egg, to feed its chick, or as a defensive mechanism when caught by a predator, as do many other Procellariformes. Some evidence shows that parents feed their chicks different prey species from what they consume themselves.

The northern coast of Sumatra is the first to be affected. The 20 °C isotherm which deepens during the same period is suggestive of the downwelling nature of Kelvin waves. The waves further propagate along the eastern boundary of the Andaman Sea, which is confirmed by the differential deepening of the 20-degree isotherm along longitudes 94°E and 97°E (averaged over latitudes 8°N and 13°N). These longitudes are chosen so that one represents the western part of the basin (94°E) and the other along the steep continental slope on the eastern side of the basin (97°E).

Bathymetric map of the Ross Sea, Antarctica The Ross Sea (and Ross Ice Shelf) overlies a deep continental shelf. Although the average depth of the world's continental shelves (at the shelf break joining the continental slope) is about 130 meters, the Ross shelf average depth is about 500 meters. It is shallower in the western Ross Sea (east longitudes) than the east (west longitudes). This over-deepened condition is due to cycles of erosion and deposition of sediments from expanding and contracting ice sheets overriding the shelf during Oligocene and later time, and is also found on other locations around Antarctica.

Possible tectonic setting during deposition of the Malmesbury group. (after Compton 2004) The late-Precambrian age Malmesbury group is the oldest rock formation in the area, consisting of alternating layers of dark grey fine-grained greywacke, sandstone and slate, seen along the rocky Sea Point and Bloubergstrand shorelines, and from the Strand to Gordon's Bay. These sediments were originally deposited on an ancient continental slope by submarine slumping and turbidity currents. The sequence was subsequently metamorphosed by heat and pressure and folded tightly in a NW direction during the Saldanian orogeny so that the rock layers are now almost vertical.

Methane venting includes the release of methane in the form of fluid and gases from methane seeps as methane ice dissociates. Due to the narrow RHSZ at the upper continental slope, methane ice at Southern Hydrate Ridge is metastable such that changes in seafloor temperature and pressure may lead to destabilization of methane ice and the disassociation into fluid and gasRuppel, C. D. (2011) Methane Hydrates and Contemporary Climate Change. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):29. Methane venting at Southern Hydrate Ridge has been observed to be transient and episodicRiedel M., M. Scherwath, M. Römer, M. Veloso, M. Heesemann, & G.D. Spence. (2018).

All these tectonic windows into the lower basement are situated in the nonvolcanic western section. More continuous outcrops of the Arverne domain can be found in the Auvergne (thence the name), the western Marche, the northern Morvan, the Lyonnais and the Livradois (Haut- Allier). The now high-grade metamorphic rocks – essentially the amphibolite facies with medium-pressure high-temperature conditions was reached - were originally deposited as flysch sequences along Gondwanas northern continental slope. This flysch sequence consisted of monotonous, rhythmically interbedded clayey (pelites) and sandy (greywackes) deposits reaching the astonishing thickness of 15 kilometers in places.

The redeye gaper, Chaunax stigmaeus, is a sedentary species of anglerfish in the family Chaunacidae. It is native to deep waters in the western North Atlantic from the Georges Bank off New England southward to the Blake Plateau off South Carolina. The species is found on the outer continental shelf and upper continental slope at a depth of 90–730 m and among dense beds of dead coral (Lophelia pertusa) rubble, their preferred habitat. The original type specimen was caught in a trawl off Atlantic City on March 1, 1946, and donated to the Academy of Natural Sciences by Carroll B. Atkinson.

In the Pacific, this shark occurs off Japan, New Zealand, and Australia from Cape Hawke, New South Wales, to Beachport, South Australia, including Tasmania. The deepest-living shark known, the Portuguese dogfish has been reported at depths of to from the lower continental slope to the abyssal plain, and is most common between and . This species is found deeper in the Mediterranean, seldom occurring above a depth of and being most common at . The deep Mediterranean has a relatively constant temperature of and a salinity of 38.4 ppt, whereas in the deep ocean the temperature is generally only and the salinity 34-35 ppt.

Sepia orbignyana is a demersal species that occurs at depths of 50m to 450m over detritus-rich or muddy substrates on the continental shelf or continental slope. It is often found in sympatry with S. elegans and S. officinalis but it seems to prefer to inhabit deeper parts of the sea than S. officinalis, and unlike that species it does not bury itself in the substrate. In the Sea of Marmara it can be found in brackish water. In the Mediterranean spawning probably occurs continuously and adults of both sexes are present in similar numbers throughout the year, although breeding activity is thought to peak in the warmer months.

Bathymetry of the gulf, with the Laurentian Channel visible The Laurentian Channel is a feature of the floor of the Gulf that was formed during previous ice ages, when the Continental Shelf was eroded by the Saint Lawrence River during the periods when the sea level plunged. The Laurentian Channel is about deep and about long from the Continental Shelf to the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River. Deep waters with temperatures between enter the Gulf at the continental slope and are slowly advected up the channel by estuariane circulation.Galbraith, P.S., Pettipas, R.G., Chassé, J., Gilbert, D., Larouche, P., Pettigrew, B., Gosselin, A., Devine, L. and Lafleur, C. 2009.

The Antarctic flying squid occurs over the continental slope and oceanic waters with depths between 0 and 1,200m. It has been caught from near to the bottom, through the water column to near the surface at night. This species is associated with faster currents and with a wide variation in temperature from cold Antarctic water 1t 3-3.6 °C to waters as warm as 24 °C. The spawning season occurs between December and August when mature males form a greater proportion of the population off southern New South Wales, this suggests that mating and spawning most likely takes place towards the northernmost limits of the species distribution in this area.

Echo Bank rises from the continental slope to a depth of about below sea level, making it the shallowest seamount in the region. It has a maximally wide flat top like a guyot at a depth of that is surmounted by volcanic cones which reach depths of and also by small depressions; the cones cluster in the central summit platform. Around the summit lie terraces and scarps, with the terraces particularly pronounced on the eastern side and perhaps reflecting a slight tilt of the seamount. The slopes of the seamount are steep and cut by curved slide scars and gullies which both reach lengths of .

The prickly brown ray has a rather fragmented range in the western Atlantic, where it is native. Large regions: from North Carolina to the Florida Keys, from the northern Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, Lesser Antilles, coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras and Colombia are known to support it. They have also been found in smaller-sized areas of the southern Gulf of Mexico and the coasts of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana and northern Brazil. Prickly brown rays are usually bottom dwelling and live on the upper continental slope (specifically the southeast U.S. continental shelf and the north Brazil shelf) at depths from 311– 732 meters.

RV Cirolana was the principle fisheries research vessel employed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom) throughout the period 1970 to 2003. She was used extensively for fish stock surveys and oceanographic investigations. In the early 1970s RV Cirolana conducted extensive surveys around Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands as well as several trips to the Labrador Sea. In 1973-4, she carried out deep-water surveys down to depths as great as 1200m along the Atlantic continental slope to the west of the British Isles and at banks further out in the Atlantic - Rockall, Hatton, Rosemary Bank and Bill Bailey's.

Goosefishes are anglerfishes in the family Lophiidae found in the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, where they live on sandy and muddy bottoms of the continental shelf and continental slope, to depths of more than . Like most other anglerfishes, they have a very large head with a large mouth that bears long, sharp, recurved teeth. Also like other anglerfishes, the first spine of the spinous dorsal fin has been modified as an angling apparatus (illicium) that bears a bulb-like or fleshy lure (esca). The angling apparatus is located at the tip of the snout just above the mouth and is used to attract prey.

In this model, an expanse of oceanic crust subducted westward under the volcanic arc, causing the overlying sedimentary rocks of the Havallah sequence to be scraped off the descending plate and forced over the approaching continental slope. Snyder and Brueckner supported the Speed model with detailed lithic descriptions of the Havallah. They interpreted the lithic composition of the Havallah to be the sedimentary floor of an extensive ocean basin. Brueckner and Snyder expressed some uncertainty about the exact time of final emplacement of the allochthon, but emphasized that structures associated with the Sonoma orogeny had a long history from the middle Paleozoic to the Permian-Triassic periods.

The northern sawtail catshark (Figaro striatus) is a little-known species of catshark, and part of the family Scyliorhinidae, endemic to northeastern Australia. It is demersal in nature and inhabits the upper continental slope at a depth of . A small, slender species growing no longer than , the northern sawtail catshark is characterized by a series of dark, narrow saddles along its back and tail, and rows of prominently enlarged dermal denticles along the upper edge of its caudal fin and the underside of its caudal peduncle. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not yet have enough information to assess its conservation status.

The Indonesian angelshark (Squatina legnota) is a rare species of angelshark, family Squatinidae, known only from a few specimens collected from fish landing sites in southern Indonesia. It is thought to inhabit the deep waters of the continental slope. Reaching at least long, this species has a flattened, ray-like shape and a well-developed tail and caudal fin. It is characterized by the absences of fringes on its nasal barbels and thorns down the midline of its back, as well as by its relatively plain grayish-brown dorsal coloration with dark saddles beneath the dorsal fin bases and a black leading margin on the underside of the pectoral fins.

The Pliocene of Tuscany is representative of a nutrient-rich upwelling in coastal waters and the upper midnight zone along a continental slope. The Pliocene of Italy featured a wide array of marine mammals, for example dolphins such as Etruridelphis, the small sperm whale Kogia pusilla, beaked whales such as Tusciziphius, baleen whales such as Eschrichtioides, the dugong Metaxytherium subapenninum, and the monk seal Pliophoca. It also featured several sharks. The area has one of the most diverse Pliocene decapod crustacean assemblages, which indicates a sandy-muddy and at places hard-rock seafloor with calm, well-oxygenated, nearshore water, settings which are conducive to decapod life.

The geological provinces of France, the Aquitaine Basin on the lower left hand side The Aquitaine Basin, named after the French region Aquitaine, is roughly funnel-shaped with its opening pointing towards the Atlantic Ocean. Here it meets for 330 km the straight, more or less north–south-trending Atlantic coastline but continues offshore to the continental slope. To the south, it is delimitated for 350 km by the west- northwest–east-southeast trending Pyrenees. In the southeast, the basin reaches the Seuil de Naurouze (also called Seuil du Lauragais) between the Montagne Noire on its northern side and the Mouthoumet range in the south.

Marine ecoregions of the South African exclusive economic zone (2011 to 2018) Marine bioregions of the South African exclusive economic zone (2004 to 2011) The marine ecoregions of the South African exclusive economic zone are a set of geographically delineated regions of similar ecological characteristics on a fairly broad scale, covering the exclusive economic zone along the South African coast. There were originally five inshore bioregions defined over the continental shelf and four offshore bioregions covering the continental slope and abyssal regions. These bioregions were used for conservation research and planning. They were defined in the South African National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment of 2004.

Before this, it was thought that only turbidity flows were capable of depositing and reworking sediment at depths greater than the continental slope. Hollister and Heezen (1972) adopted the name contourite for these deposits and provided a list of characteristics that described their sediments. Faugères and Stow (1993) note that as research on the subject developed, the term contourite was used to describe various forms of sedimentary deposits from bottom-currents including those at much shallower depths and even in lacustrine settings. They suggested going back to the original definition of a contourite, that is for deposits at depths greater than 500 m derived from stable thermohaline-induced geostrophic bottom-currents (i.e.

Records of the deepwater stingray come from a number of locations scattered widely in the Indo-Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Mozambique, the Gulf of Mannar, the northern Andaman Islands, the South China Sea, the Ryukyu Islands and the Kyushu-Palau Ridge, along the southern coastline of Australia, northwestern Australia from the Rowley Shoals to Shark Bay, northeastern Australia from Townsville to Wooli, New Caledonia, and Hawaii. This bottom-dwelling species generally inhabits the upper continental slope at depths of , over muddy or silty substrates. An anomalous record from only deep off Mozambique was made. It seems to be locally common in tropical Australian waters, but may be rarer elsewhere.

Shale matrix mélange with clasts of sandstone and greenstone on Marshall's Beach, San Francisco, US Large-scale melanges formed in active continental margin settings generally consist of altered oceanic crustal material and blocks of continental slope sediments in a sheared mudstone matrix. The mixing mechanisms in such settings may include tectonic shearing forces, ductile flow of a water-charged or deformable matrix (such as serpentinite), sedimentary action (such as slumping, gravity-flow, and olistostromal action), or some combination of these. Some larger blocks of rock may be as much as across. Before the advent of plate tectonics in the early 1970s, it was difficult to explain mélanges in terms of known geological mechanisms.

During the Middle Triassic, the Chaohu strata were deposited in an oceanic basin relatively far from the coast, which was bordered on the south by shallower waters and carbonate platforms, and on the north by a continental slope and deeper basins. The ichthyosauriforms Sclerocormus and Chaohusaurus are both found in Majiashan Quarry along with Cartorhynchus; Sclerocormus is known from the younger Bed 719 (248.16 Ma), while Chaohusaurus is found in both beds. The sauropterygian Majiashanosaurus is known from Bed 643. Fish diversity in the Majiashan Quarry is poorer than other localities; the most common fish is Chaohuperleidus, the oldest known member of the Perleidiformes, but a species of the wide-ranging Saurichthys and several undescribed fish are also unknown.

A 1967 survey of specimens included 14 males ranging from , and eight females from . It has been found on muddy bottoms of the continental slope at depths of . Bigelow and Schroeder describe the species as "characterized among western Atlantic rajids by the presence of a band of formidable and very sharp thorns extending along the margin of the lower surface from the tip of the snout almost to the outer corners of the disc." The number of thorns in the median row varied from 30 to 43, without apparent relation to the size or age of the skate, while a triangular patch of thorns in the nuchal–scapular area ranged from one to five.

This is clearly seen on the Norwegian continental slope where the location of landslides such as Storegga and Traenadjupet is related to weak geological layers. However the position of these weak layers is determined by regional variation in sedimentation style, which itself is controlled by large scale environmental factors such as climate change between glacial and interglacial conditions. Even when considering all the above listed factors, in the end it was calculated that the landslide needed an earthquake for it to ultimately be initiated. The environments in which submarine landslides are commonly found in are fjords, active river deltas on the continental margin, submarine canyon fan systems, open continental slopes, and oceanic volcanic islands and ridges.

The Angolan flying squid is mainly found in the upper slope, benthic habitat of the South African continental slope at depths of between 300m and 500m, as is the lesser flying squid (Todaropsis eblanae) and these two species are considered indicator species for this zone. The adults are restricted to near the bottom during the day while the juveniles occur in all depths apart from the surface, which they avoid during the day. During the night the adult squid move up the watercoilumn and can be found at various depths but still avoid the surface and the juveniles are most abundant at depths of 60m-80m. Normally the young squid show a preference for the epipelagic zone.

When the continental slope collapses the subterranean landslide causes a tsunami that hits most of the North Sea's coasts, killing millions and severely damaging the infrastructure in the coastal regions. At the same time Leon Anawak, a marine scientist who investigates the behavior of whales and works for a whale watching company, makes startling observations in the whales' behavior; and is called to investigate an incident where whales and sea-borne mussels seemed to have attacked and incapacitated a commercial freighter. When he returns to his whale watching job, he witnesses how humpback whales and orcas attack the watcher's boats. The whales work together to capsize the boats and then kill the people drifting in the water.

The European flying squid is an oceanic, neritic species of squid that can be found from the surface to depths in excess of 1000 metres and it has been taken in United Kingdom territorial waters at 4,595 m. It is occasionally recorded among the fauna of the seabed on the continental shelf or the upper continental slope, for example off northwest Africa where it is commonly found between 350–700 metres. This species undertakes migrations for feeding and as it matures in the North Atlantic. Large schools appear offshore near southern Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and sometimes Scotland in the early summer, and they stay in these areas until the onset of winter.

In the European flying squid spawning is most likely to be continuous throughout the year on the continental slope, but there are distinct seasonal peaks in late winter or early spring in the northeastern Atlantic. In the Catalan Sea and the Balearic Islands of the western Mediterranean spawning peaks between September and November. The length of the spermatophore depends on the size of the males and on their geographic origin ; being relatively larger (48 to 54 mm) in the Catalan Sea than in the population off North Africa (20 to 29 mm). The female fecundity is high, and each bears up to several hundred thousand eggs, depending on the size of females.

A marine protected area is defined by the IUCN as "A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values". This MPA is specifically intended to protect rocky shelf edge, seamount and associated deep sea biodiversity and ecosystems. It is split to allow petroleum exploration in areas between those of more ecologically important areas, which include untrawled rocky shelf edge with coral gardens in the shallower 200 to depths and reef-building cold-water corals in the depth range. The deeper areas protect continental slope and abyssal habitats in the depth range, and a seamount.

Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone The continental shelf has an area of , although its width is variable from in the north to in the south. Its strong relief is marked by deep submarine canyons and the continuation of the main rivers. The Estremadura Spur separates the Iberian Abyssal and Tagus Abyssal Plains, while the continental slope is flanked by sea-mounts and abuts against the prominent Gorringe Bank in the south. Currently, the Portuguese government claims a depth, or to a depth of exploitation. The Portuguese coast is extensive; in addition to approximately along the coast of continental Portugal, the archipelagos of the Azores (667 km) and Madeira (250 km) are primarily surrounded by rough cliff coastlines.

The hydrology of the upper water layers is largely determined by the flow from the North Atlantic. It reaches a speed of 10 Sv (1 Sv = million m3/s) and its maximum depth is 700 metres at the Lofoten Islands, but normally it is within 500 meters. Part of it comes through the Faroe-Shetland Channel and has a comparatively high salinity of 35.3‰ (parts per thousand). This current originates in the North Atlantic Current and passes along the European continental slope; increased evaporation due to the warm European climate results in the elevated salinity. Another part passes through the Greenland- Scotland trench between the Faroe Islands and Iceland; this water has a mean salinity between 35 and 35.2‰.

A frilled shark in its Blake Plateau habitat, in the western Atlantic Ocean. (2004) The habitats of the frilled shark include the waters of the outer continental shelf and the upper-to-middle continental slope, favoring upwellings and other biologically productive areas. Usually, the shiver lives close to the ocean floor, yet its diet of cephalopods, smaller sharks, and bony fish, indicates that the frilled shark practices diel vertical migration, and swims up to feed at night at the surface of the ocean. In their Atlantic- and Pacific-ocean habitats, frilled sharks practice spatial segregation determined by the individual size, the sex, and the reproductive condition of each shark in the shiver.

The larvae are pelagic and are found over continental shelf waters and occasionally in the oceanic zone proximal to the continental slope. They are present all year round in the Gulf of Mexico, with a peak in abundance during the summer months due to spawning peaks. While the young juveniles live in the exposed pelagic environment, they use a behaviour called 'piloting' to swim in very close proximity to both larger animals and floating objects, such as sargassum mats, buoys and even boats. By the time juveniles make their way to shore, they may have been dispersed large distances from their initial spawning grounds and may face the challenge of migration to warmer climates during winter if they are to survive as outlined previously.

Delaware II was built at South Portland Engineering in South Portland, Maine. She was launched in December 1967 and commissioned in October 1968 into service with the Fish and Wildlife Services Bureau of Commercial Fisheries as BCF Delaware II. When NOAA was established on 3 October 1970, she became part of NOAAs fleet as NOAAS Delaware II (R 445). Based at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and operated by NOAAs Office of Marine and Aviation Operations, Delaware II conducted fishery research in support of NMFSs Northeast Fisheries Science Centers (NEFSC) Woods Hole Laboratory. She normally operated in the Gulf of Maine, on the Georges Bank, and on the continental shelf and continental slope from southern New England to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Turbidity currents are flows of dense, sediment laden waters that are supplied by rivers, or generated on the seabed by storms, submarine landslides, earthquakes, and other soil disturbances. Turbidity currents travel down slope at great speed (as much as 70 km/h), eroding the continental slope and finally depositing sediment onto the abyssal plain, where the particles settle out.Continental Margin Sedimentation: From Sediment Transport to Sequence Stratigraphy (Special Publication 37 of the IAS) March 2009, by Charles Nittroeur, pg 372. About 3% of submarine canyons include shelf valleys that have cut transversely across continental shelves, and which begin with their upstream ends in alignment with and sometimes within the mouths of large rivers, such as the Congo River and the Hudson Canyon.

However, if a primary mechanism must be selected, the downslope lineal morphology of canyons and channels and the transportation of excavated or loose materials of the continental slope over extensive distances require that various kinds of turbidity or density currents act as major participants. In addition to the processes described above, submarine canyons that are especially deep may form by another method. In certain cases, a sea with a bed significantly below sea level is cut off from the larger ocean to which it is usually connected. The sea which is normally repleted by contact and inflow from the ocean is now no longer replenished and hence dries up over a period of time, which can be very short if the local climate is arid.

The break-up of Pangaea resulted in the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in three stages The Atlantic Ocean is underlain mostly by dense mafic oceanic crust made up of basalt and gabbro and overlain by fine clay, silt and siliceous ooze on the abyssal plain. The continental margins and continental shelf mark lower density, but greater thickness felsic continental rock that often much older than that of the seafloor. The oldest oceanic crust in the Atlantic is up to 145 million years and situated off the west coast of Africa and east coast of North America, or on either side of the South Atlantic. In many places, the continental shelf and continental slope are covered in thick sedimentary layers.

Throughout its range, the whale tends not to frequent semienclosed bodies of water, such as the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Hudson Bay, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. It occurs predominantly in deep water, occurring most commonly over the continental slope, in basins situated between banks, or submarine canyon areas. In the North Pacific, it ranges from 20°N to 23°N latitude in the winter, and from 35°N to 50°N latitude in the summer. Approximately 75% of the North Pacific population lives east of the International Date Line, but there is little information regarding the North Pacific distribution. , the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service estimated that the eastern North Pacific population stood at 374 whales.

The argument is that those in Washington and Oregon in the United States have much more in common with those in British Columbia, Canada, than those in Washington D.C.. The Cascadia Bioregion is also referred to as the Pacific Northwest Bioregion and encompasses all of the state of Washington, and portions of Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Yukon, and British Columbia. Bioregions are geographically based areas defined by land or soil composition, watershed, climate, flora, and fauna. The Cascadia Bioregion claims the entire watershed of the Columbia River (as far as the Continental Divide), as well as the Cascade Range from Northern California well into Canada. It's also considered to include the associated ocean and seas and their ecosystems out to the continental slope.

Satellite image of the Andaman Sea showing the green algae and silt deposits due to the Irrawaddy River in its northern part The northern and eastern side of the basin is shallow, as the continental shelf off the coast of Myanmar and Thailand extends over 200 km (marked by 300 m isobath). About 45 percent of the basin area is shallower (less than 500 m depth), which is the direct consequence of the presence of the wider shelf. The continental slope which follows the eastern shelf is quite steep between 9°N and 14°N. Here, the perspective view of the submarine topography sectioned along 95°E exposes the abrupt rise in depth of sea by about 3,000 m within a short horizontal distance of a degree.

Norwegian Sea, surrounded by shallower seas to the south (North Sea) and northeast (Barents Sea). The white dot near the centre is Jan Mayen, and the dot between Spitsbergen (large island to the north) and Norway is Bear Island. Værøy and Røst islands, Lofoten, Norway The Norwegian Sea was formed about 250 million years ago, when the Eurasian plate of Norway and the North American Plate, including Greenland, started to move apart. The existing narrow shelf sea between Norway and Greenland began to widen and deepen.Terje Thornes & Oddvar Longva "The origin of the coastal zone" in: Sætre, 2007, pp. 35–43 The present continental slope in the Norwegian Sea marks the border between Norway and Greenland as it stood approximately 250 million years ago.

Water circulation in the Indian Ocean is dominated by the Subtropical Anticyclonic Gyre, the eastern extension of which is blocked by the Southeast Indian Ridge and the 90°E Ridge. Madagascar and the Southwest Indian Ridge separates three cells south of Madagascar and off South Africa. North Atlantic Deep Water reaches into the Indian Ocean south of Africa at a depth of and flows north along the eastern continental slope of Africa. Deeper than NADW, Antarctic Bottom Water flows from Enderby Basin to Agulhas Basin across deep channels (<) in the Southwest Indian Ridge, from where it continues into the Mozambique Channel and Prince Edward Fracture Zone. North of 20° south latitude the minimum surface temperature is , exceeding to the east.

The shortspine chimaera is a subtropical species, inhabiting the upper to mid continental slope on the east coast of Australia, at depths of around 450-1,080 m, although it most commonly lives in waters deeper than 1,025 m. In particular, the species is found near Tuncurry, New South Wales; sightings have been reported in other spots on the east coast, from Ulladulla to Queensland, but it is probable that these are actually a different species. It is not targeted commercially, and most fisheries trawl in waters shallower than where the species typically lives, so no conservation actions are currently taking place for the species; however, it may be a bycatch for deepwater fisheries. The exact population of the species is unknown, but is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Here the squid make ontogenetic movements as well, from the continental shelf to the continental slope and deep waters. This species is also known to undertake daily vertical migrations being found near the sea bed or at depths during the day and moving up to the surface and near- surface waters at night, however they are caught at night in deeper waters indicating that a proportion of the population do not always undertake vertical migrations. Squids of this species may be found solitarily or in small groups but as their trophic migration progresses they form large schools on the continental shelves in the waters of the northern Atlantic and off northwest Africa. The sex ratio of the European flying squid almost always shows a preponderance of females and there are very few males captured.

Burchfiel and Davis presented the first detailed paper that explained the Antler orogeny and the Roberts Mountains thrust in terms of the subduction aspect of plate tectonics, stating: ... the paleogeography of this part of the Cordilleran geosyncline probably consisted of an offshore island complex separated from the continental slope and shelf by a small ocean basin of behind-the-arc type. Initial regional deformation within the Cordilleran geosyncline—the Mid-Paleozoic Antler orogeny—was characterized by the eastward displacement (Roberts Mountains thrust) of eugeosynclinal units from within the small ocean basin over miogeosynclinal strata deposited on the continental shelf. Their now-outdated terms eugeosynclinal and miogeosynclinal refer respectively to the western facies and eastern facies domains. In that paper, Burchfiel and Davis set the parameters for future discussions of the nature and origins of the Antler orogeny and associated thrusts.

Ornithoteuthis antillarum is a pelagic, oceanic species which is thought to be commonest near continental slopes. It is at its most abundant at depths between 100m and 600 m. The paralarvae and adults are relatively common in the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and in the Gulf Stream, extending south into the Caribbean Sea and to the waters over the continental slope off Brazil. It does not seem to be a schooling speciesbut sampling suggests that it is common from the middle of the water column to very near the bottom, although it has never been reported to sit on the bottom. In the Caribbean this species has been recorded at the surface at night, with many specimens being captured at night over deep bottom depths in the eastern South Atlantic between 100m and 600m in depth.

The frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) and the southern African frilled shark (Chlamydoselachus africana) are the two extant species of shark in the family Chlamydoselachidae. The frilled shark is considered a living fossil, because of its primitive, anguilliform (eel-like) physical traits, such as a dark-brown color, amphistyly (the articulation of the jaws to the cranium), and a –long body, which has dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins located towards the tail. The common name, frilled shark, derives from the fringed appearance of the six pairs of gill slits at the shark's throat. The two species of frilled shark are distributed throughout regions of the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, usually in the waters of the outer continental shelf and of the upper continental slope, where the shivers usually live near the ocean floor, near biologically productive areas of the ecosystem.

Post rift sediments are the results of a several million year story involving various carbonate reef formations, and heavy erosion events which flooded the gulf with terrestrial clastic sediments from inland North America, essentially recording the tectonic history of the North American continent since the Cretaceous. The first post-rift sediments deposited on the Florida Platform were also Mid-Jurassic evaporites, followed by deltaic and shallow-marine siliciclastics; eventually sediments grade into the Cretaceous carbonates, evaporites, and chalks. More recently, the Laramide Orogeny and consequential uplift of the Rocky Mountains, which led to increased sediments flooding the gulf, is responsible for the rapid loading and burial of the Wilcox Formation (pg 43), which is one of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico formations currently being exploited for hydrocarbons. This rapid loading is also responsible for the first salt flows from beneath the basin- margin region towards the continental slope.

Gas- hydrate deposits by sector Studies published in 2000 attributed the hypothesis to be responsible for warming events in and at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, but the distinct deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) isotope ratio indicates the methane was released by wetlands instead. Although periods of increased atmospheric methane matches periods of continental-slope failure. At one point there seemed to be stronger evidence that runaway methane clathrate breakdown may have caused drastic alteration of the ocean environment (such as ocean acidification and ocean stratification) and of the atmosphere over timescales of tens of thousands of years during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum 56 million years ago, and most notably the Permian–Triassic extinction event, when up to 96% of all marine species became extinct, 252 million years ago. However, the pattern of isotope shifts expected to result from a massive release of methane does not match the patterns seen there.

The spermatophores of mature males have a length equivalent to 10.3% of mantle length and the number of spermatophores is around 100 as the male matures tha volume of the Needham's sac and of the seminal reservoirs of the spermatophores increases. O. volatilis is a nerito-oceanic species which lives near or over slopes; the non adults are found in midwater in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones above the tops and slopes of sea mounts and midocean ridges as well as over the continental slopes and oceanic depths. They spawn near the sea bed near sea mounts and mid ocean ridges, and they may make long migrations to these areas. off eastern Australia spawning takes place in the deeper shelf and upper continental slope waters that sit within the warm East Australian Current which originates in the tropics, the size distribution of paralarvae and adults suggests that spawning in occurs throughout the year in this area.

In the deep sea (1800 m depth or greater), the BBL is noted as having a near homogenous temperature and salinity with periodic fluxes of detrital or particulate organic matter (POM). This POM is strongly linked to seasonal variations in surface productivity and hydrodynamic conditions.Guidi- Guilvard, L. D., Thistle, D., Khripounoff, A., and S. Gasparini (2009) ”Dynamics of benthic copepods and other meiofauna in the benthic boundary layer of the deep NW Mediterranean Sea” Marine Ecology Progress Series 396: 181-195 Excluding hydrothermal vents, much of the deep sea benthos is allochthonous, and the importance of bacteria for substrate conversion is paramount.Poremba, K. and H-G. Hoppe (1995) ”partial variation of benthic microbial production and hydrolytic enzymatic activity down the continental slope of the Celtic Sea” Marine Ecology Progress Series 118: 237-245 While the supply of POM, or marine snow, is relatively limited and inhibits species abundance, it sustains a complex yet understudied microbial loop that can maintain both meiofaunal and macrofaunal populations.

With continuing experience, particularly on the upper continental slope in the Gulf of Mexico, the successful prediction of the presence of tubeworm communities continues to improve, however chemosynthetic communities cannot be reliably detected directly using geophysical techniques. Hydrocarbon seeps that allow chemosynthetic communities to exist do modify the geological characteristics in ways that can be remotely detected, but the time scales of co-occurring active seepage and the presence of living communities is always uncertain. These known sediment modifications include (1) precipitation of authigenic carbonate in the form of micronodules, nodules, or rock masses; (2) formation of gas hydrates; (3) modification of sediment composition through concentration of hard chemosynthetic organism remains (such as shell fragments and layers); (4) formation of interstitial gas bubbles or hydrocarbons; and (5) formation of depressions or pockmarks by gas expulsion. These features give rise to acoustic effects such as wipeout zones (no echoes), hard bottoms (strongly reflective echoes), bright spots (reflection enhanced layers), or reverberant layers (Behrens, 1988; Roberts and Neurauter, 1990).

At Siccar Point, during the lower Silurian Llandovery epoch around 435 million years ago, thin beds of fine-grained mudstone were laid down gradually deep in the Iapetus Ocean, alternating with thicker layers of hard greywacke formed when torrents swept unsorted sandstone down the continental slope. During the following 65 million years, the ocean closed and the layers of rock were buckled almost vertically, getting forced to the surface as the ocean floor was subducted under the northern continent. Erosion of the exposed edges of layers formed a characteristic shape of ribs of hard greywracke with narrow gaps where mudstone was worn away, and fragments of greywacke lay on the surface as a talus deposit. In the Famennian Late Devonian period around 370 million years ago this was a low-lying tropical area just south of the equator, where rainy season rivers deposited sands and silts rich in iron oxide, then during the dry seasons these were blown about by winds to form easily eroded layers and dunes.

Note caption on photo: "Sounding Machine And Current Meter In Place, Steamer Blake" Among the notable discoveries linked to the ship was the definition of bathymetry proving an unexpected at the time and unusual feature of the United States continental slope, now named for the ship as the Blake Plateau. Initial findings of such a plateau were found in June 1880 during investigations of the Gulf Stream. During her first survey season, starting in June 1874, George S. Blake was being used to test deep sea equipment designed by Sir William Thomson, the Thomson Sounding Machine (also known as the Kelvin sounding machine), as modified by Commander Belknap, USN and to bring up specimens from in the Gulf of Maine. By the time the ship reached the Gulf of Mexico in 1875 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Charles Dwight Sigsbee, USN the ship was using a modification of the Thomson sounding machine designed by Sigsbee, known as the Sigsbee sounding machine that was the standard wire sounding device for fifty years, and with the shot release device first tested the previous year with Sigsbee attached to the survey party.