Hudson Canyon

Hudson Canyon, large submarine canyon incised into the Atlantic continental slope and outer shelf off New York Harbor, U.S. A shallow shelf channel, Hudson Channel, trends south-southeastward from the mouth of Hudson River to the head of the canyon on the outer shelf, where the water is 300 feet (90 meters) deep at 20 miles (30 km) offshore. The canyon proper is approximately 58 miles (93 km) long, passing into a fan valley at the base of the continental slope at a depth of about 7,000 feet (2,100 meters). Where best expressed topographically, the canyon’s V-shaped walls have a height of 4,000 feet (1,200 meters). Hudson Fan Valley, incised into the continental rise below the mouth of Hudson Canyon, has much less relief, although the 1,800-foot- (550-meter-) high walls about 90 miles (150 km) down the fan are abnormally high for most fan valleys. The fan valley, at least 230 miles (370 km) long, probably serves to distribute the sediment supplied from the shelf by Hudson Canyon over the Hudson Fan.