Journal of Marine Sciences ›› 2024, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (1): 13-22.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-909X.2024.01.002

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Method for determining the foot point of continental slope in complex geological background: Take the southern continental margin of Mozambique as an example

ZHUANG Baojiang1,2(), TANG Yong1,2,3,4,5,*(), LÜ Xiaohui6, YANG Chunguo1,2, WU Zhaocai1,2, LI He1,2   

  1. 1. Second Institute of Oceanography, MNR, Hangzhou 310012, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, MNR, Hangzhou 310012, China
    3. School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
    4. Hubei Key Laboratory of Marine Geological Resources, China University of Geoscience, Wuhan 430074, China
    5. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519000, China
    6. Beijing Dynovision Technology Co., Ltd., Beijing 102200, China
  • Received:2023-02-21 Revised:2023-04-26 Online:2024-03-15 Published:2024-05-11

Abstract:

A new method for determining the foot point of the continental slope (FOS) was proposed for the delineation of the continental shelf in a complex geological context. This method calculated the location of the foot of slope based on the mean gradient of water depth and optimized it by combining the contrary evidence and the principles of convexity, segmentation and continuity. Using the southern continental margin of Mozambique as the study area, the method was applied to extract the most critical basis—FOS for continental shelf delineation using high-precision multibeam topographic data measured in 2021, and the result was confirmed by comparison with those extracted by the Geocap software which is used by the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental shelf, proving the effectiveness and accuracy of this method.

Key words: delimitation of continental shelf, foot point of slope, average gradient changes, southern continental margin of Mozambique

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