Congo Canyon

▪ submarine canyon, Atlantic Ocean

      large submarine canyon incised into the South Atlantic continental shelf and slope of western equatorial Africa. The head of the canyon lies 17 miles (28 km) inland, up the Congo Estuary, and has a depth of 70 feet (21 m). The canyon crosses the entire shelf with a westerly trend to the shelf edge 53 miles (85 km) offshore, continuing down the continental slope, curving to the right and ending at the base of the slope in a fan valley at a depth of 8,700 feet (2,650 m). The total length of the canyon to this point is about 175 miles (280 km). At an axial depth of about 6,000 feet (1,800 m), the walls of the V-shaped canyon are highest, 3,600 feet (1,100 m), and the canyon is about 9 miles (14 km) wide from rim to rim. The Congo Fan Valley is at least 135 miles (220 km) long and has relief diminishing down the fan, from 600 feet (180 m) to about 100 feet (30 m).

      Congo Canyon is the conduit for sediments from the Congo River and the continental shelf en route to the deep-sea floor. After the sediments are transported to reach the canyon mouth, they are distributed over the fan by the fan valley, which probably migrates laterally with time.

* * *