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ECOSYSTEMS > COASTAL WATERS
If you imagine the continents as large slabs of stone floating on the Earth’s molten mantle, then the continental shelf is the relatively flat edge of those slabs, mostly hidden beneath the ocean. Although depths of the shelf change from place to place, this area is shallow when compared to the most of the ocean. At the edge of the shelf is a grade where sediment and debris from above slide toward the ocean bottom and create the steeper continental slope. The heaviest and densest debris accumulates at the bottom of the slope where it meets the abyssal plain. This accumulation forms massive underwater hills known as the continental rise. All together, the continental shelf, continental slope and continental rise are referred to as the continental margin which makes up just over a quarter of all oceanic area. |
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