Pronounced variations in slope topography and offshelf spillover have produced a three-fold difference (9 to 25 cm/1,000 yr) in Late Quaternary deposition rates among slope cores southeast of the Mid-Atlantic States. Upper rise cores revealed a high rate but lower core-to-core variability (20 to 44 cm/1,000 yr), largely the result of slope bypassing, i.e., effects of gravity-controlled downslope transport. A transport model suggests temporary slope sediment storage and higher accumulation of mud in more distal rise regions. Eustatic change accounts for the four-fold decrease in slope deposition rate between the Late Pleistocene and Holocene.
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