Atlas of the Patagonian Sea

Continental Shelf
© William Conway

Continental Shelf

The Patagonian Sea includes an extensive and flat continental shelf (approximately 1,000,000 km2), which rarely exceeds 100 m.

At the edge of the shelf the depth increases to 160-200 m, and thence the slope increases more abruptly, by one metre for every 1,000 m (West to East) on the so-called continental slope.

Beyond the slope is the Argentine Basin, a great abyss, thousands of metres in depth.