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The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope [3] (called the shelf break).The sea floor below the break is the continental slope. [4] Below the slope is the continental rise, which finally merges into the deep ocean floor, the abyssal plain. [5]
Profile illustrating the shelf, slope and rise. A continental margin is the outer edge of continental crust abutting oceanic crust under coastal waters.It is one of the three major zones of the ocean floor, the other two being deep-ocean basins and mid-ocean ridges.
Because the continental rise lies below the continental slope and is formed from sediment deposition, it has a very gentle slope, usually ranging from 1:50 to 1:500. [1] As the continental rise extends seaward, the layers of sediment thin, and the rise merges with the abyssal plain, typically forming a slope of around 1:1000.
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 ...
With an increasing continental shelf slope, current velocity increases, as the velocity of the flow increases, turbulence increases, and the current draws up more sediment. The increase in sediment also adds to the density of the current, and thus increases its velocity even further.
Geologically, Brazil's legal continental shelf mostly corresponds to a divergent continental margin formed by the split between South America and Africa, with a well-defined shelf, slope and rise. It is at its widest off the Northern coast, where the Amazon River forms one of the world's largest submarine fans.
The U.N. in 2012 confirmed Benham Rise, which is off the Philippines' east coast and not under dispute with China, as part of the Philippines' extended continental shelf. (Reporting by Neil Jerome ...
Seafloor spreading creates mid-ocean ridges along the center line of major ocean basins, where the seabed is slightly shallower than the surrounding abyssal plain. From the abyssal plain, the seabed slopes upward toward the continents and becomes, in order from deep to shallow, the continental rise, slope, and shelf.