What is the structure of the continental slope?
Structure. A continental shelf typically extends from the coast to depths of 100–200 metres (330–660 feet). It is gently inclined seaward at an average slope of about 0.1°. In nearly all instances, it ends at its seaward edge with an abrupt drop called the shelf break.
Where can you find continental slope?
The continental slope extends from the shelf break to water depths typically of around 3,000–4,000 m where an abrupt change in gradient delimits the foot of slope.
What is continental shelf continental slope and margin?
The shelf usually ends at a point of increasing slope (called the shelf break). The sea floor below the break is the continental slope. Below the slope is the continental rise, which finally merges into the deep ocean floor, the abyssal plain. The continental shelf and the slope are part of the continental margin.
Does South America have a steep continental slope?
The west coast of South America has a very narrow continental shelf and a relatively steep, narrow, continental slope that merges into a deep ocean trench along most of the coastline.
What lives in the continental slope?
Different Slope Communities Dover sole, sablefish, and rockfish (fig. 4) have this type of life history; however, most species living deeper, such as rattails, deep-sea soles, and slickheads, have young that live in the same depths as adults. Relatively few species occur at all or most depths on the Continental Slope.
How is continental slope formed?
How is the continental slope formed? They are formed when muddy sediments are washed away or scraped off of the top of the continental plate. The structure then becomes unstable. When the edge becomes unstable, the sediments slough off and forms a continental slope.
How long is the continental slope?
approximately 300,000 km
The world’s combined continental slope has a total length of approximately 300,000 km (200,000 miles) and descends at an average angle in excess of 4° from the shelf break at the edge of the continental shelf to the beginning of the ocean basins at depths of 100 to 3,200 metres (330 to 10,500 feet).
What is thermocline in geography class 11?
The boundary region where there is a rapid decrease of temperature is called thermocline. Thermocline is the second layer of ocean water which lies below the first layer and it is characterised by a rapid decrease in temperature with increasing depth.
What is an abyssal plain Class 11?
The Abyssal plains are the areas where the continental sediments that move beyond the margins get deposited. What are Continental Margins? Answer: These form the transition between continental shores and deep-sea basins. They include continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise and deep-oceanic trenches.
What is an example of a continental slope?
Continental slopes are indented by numerous submarine canyons and mounds. The Blake Plateau off the southeastern United States and the continental borderland off southern California are examples of continental slopes separated from continental shelves by plateaus of intermediate depth.
What is the average slope of the continental shelf?
Compared with the relatively flat surface and gentle inclination of the continental shelf, the continental slope dips steeply into the ocean basins at an average angle of around 4° although it may be much steeper locally (35 to 90°).
What is the length of the combined continental slope?
Continental slope, seaward border of the continental shelf. The world’s combined continental slope has a total length of approximately 300,000 km (200,000 miles) and descends at an average angle in excess of 4° from the shelf break at the edge of the continental shelf to the beginning of the ocean
Where is the slope of the continents?
Continental slope. The passive margin slopes of the South Atlantic Ocean are the widest on average (73 km), although the slope attains its greatest width of 368 km in the North Atlantic, where the slope protrudes south of Newfoundland. The most narrow, active margin, slopes are in the Mediterranean and Black Seas (25.8 km).