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continental rise

American  

noun

Physical Geography.

  1. the gently sloping transition between the continental slope and the deep ocean floor, usually characterized by coalescence of submarine alluvial fans.

continental rise Scientific  

  1. A wide, gentle incline from an ocean bottom to a continental slope. A continental rise consists mainly of silts, muds, and sand, and can be several hundreds of miles wide. Although it usually has a smooth surface, it is sometimes crosscut by submarine canyons.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.