Continental Rise

The continental rise is the gently sloping wedge of sediment at the foot of the continental slope, grading seaward into the abyssal plain. Gradients are low, around 1:100 to 1:700, and it is built mainly by turbidity currents and debris flows shed down submarine canyons, plus bottom-current contourite deposits. Thicknesses reach several kilometers on mature passive margins like the U.S. Atlantic, where coalescing deep-sea fans form the rise. It is largely absent on active margins because a trench intercepts the downslope sediment before a rise can build. The rise marks the transition from continental to true oceanic depth.