Understanding continent‐ocean sediment transfer

Submarine canyons are narrow but deep submarine valleys that extend for hundreds of meters. They represent the most impressive structures that shape the present morphology of passive continental margins. They can occur off the mouth of rivers: the Tagus, Zaire, Amazon, and Orinoco in the Atlantic; the Indus in the Indian Ocean; and the Var, Rhone, and Ebro in the Mediterranean. Some are at times disconnected from any stream mouth such as the Nazare canyon, off Portugal, despite the fact that it is close to the coast. Some were connected to a river mouth during lowstands of sea level, such as the Wilmington canyon in the northwest Atlantic, or the Blackmud canyon in the northeast Atlantic.