continental margin

American  

noun

Physical Geography.

1. the offshore zone, consisting of the continental shelf, slope, and rise, that separates the dry-land portion of a continent from the deep ocean floor.

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Example Sentences

These pockmarks are located on the continental margin, a dynamic section of the seafloor that connects the relatively shallow continental shelf to the deep sea.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2024

The seafloor offshore of this remote stretch of the Central California coastline has historically been one of the least-studied regions of the continental margin off the west coast of North America.

From Science Daily • May 21, 2024

A 2009 study of the West Spitsbergen continental margin north of Norway in the Arctic Ocean, led by University of Birmingham geophysicist Graham Westbrook, put into perspective the challenges the scientific community faces.

From Scientific American • Aug. 1, 2017

Instead of descending directly into the mantle, the subducting plate shallowed out and moved eastward beneath the continental plate affecting the overlying continent hundreds of miles east of the continental margin and building high mountains.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2017

Figure 10.5 The development of a geosyncline along a continental margin.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015