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This map shows the continental shelf south of Long Island, N.Y., and east of New Jersey. Note that the underwater topography has been exaggerated by a factor of 5 relative to the land topography. This was done to better show bottom features.
Hudson Canyon is the valley extending from the mouth of the Hudson River toward the southeast across the continental shelf. The shelf in this area is quite broad. The land north of the canyon is Long Island, and the water just north of it is Long Island Sound. Some artifacts in the depth data are visible in the eastern part of the Sound. The thin ridge along Long Island is a glacial moraine. Connecticut is north of the Sound.
The low land to the west of the canyon is New Jersey, its northen section is more mountainous.
The continental shelf slopes very gently until it reaches the continental slope where it plunges more steeply toward the abyssal plain to the southeast. Even here the slope is not as precipitous as it appears in the image. Here is a profile across the shelf that better shows the changing depths. This profile extends from Barnegat Light, NJ (about the midpoint of the NJ's Atlantic coast, where it changes direction) across the shelf parallel to the Hudson Canyon.
Ray Sterner sterner@tesla.jhuapl.edu The Johns Hopkins University North latitude 39.16 degrees. Applied Physics Laboratory West longitude 76.90 degrees. Laurel, MD 20723-6099 WWW Home page: http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/res