Blake Plateau

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. Slopes off mountainous coastlines and narrow shelves often have outcrops of rock.

…plateaus are exemplified by the Blake Plateau off the southeastern United States. This plateau’s flat surface lies between 700 and 1,000 m (2,300 and 3,300 feet) below sea level, is more than 300 km (185 miles) wide, and covers approximately 130,000 square km (50,000 square miles) of seafloor. The crust…

The Blake Plateau off the east coast of Florida is a good example. Such a plateau constitutes a portion of a continental margin that has many of the features of a normal system but is found at much greater depth—1,000 metres (about 3,300 feet) in the…