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Abstract

There has lately been a growth in the level of study of continental margins. Apart from increased scientific interest, studies of continental margins have now taken on a much higher commercial profile, largely because of the oil industry’s move off the shelf into increasingly deeper waters world-wide. The variation and disturbance of sediments on slopes make them ideal areas for the generation, migration and entrapment of hydrocarbons. The three topics considered in this volume are of particular significance to continental margin development. The 19 papers provide a sample of recent and current work with an emphasis on processes active beyond the shelf break. Individual researchers have unsurprisingly tended to concentrate on specific types of process, having chosen study areas well suited to the investigation of specific phenomena. The key distinction of processes is that between downslope, alongslope and hemipelagic processes. There is, however, increasing recognition that all these need to be integrated to produce a model of continental margin development. The processes will differ in importance in space and time, but their interrelationship needs to be understood, and background processes must be appreciated. A notable contribution of this volume is an increased awareness of the importance of alongslope processes within this model. It is thought that in ten years’ time as much as 25% of oil will be extracted from deep-water fields. An understanding of continental margin processes is therefore becoming crucial to the safe development of deep-water oilfields. The papers in this volume thus have considerable actual or potential commercial value.