Christopher N. K. Mooers

Portland State University | PSU · Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

and the People's Republic of China. As the world's population grows and the use of fossil fuels continues to increase, the Earth is experiencing signifi-cant changes to its climate and environment. This includes the melting of glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet, a thin-ning of the north polar ice cap (which if lost, will change the Earth's albedo...

A coastal ocean extended Prince William Sound nowcast/forecast system (EPWS/NFS) has been running semi-automatically for an extended domain of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska for 2 years. To determine the performance of this modeling system, an assessment is conducted. EPWS/NFS and PWS/NFS (viz., its predecessor) nowcasts are compared with obser...

The Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented and run for several years with mesoscale- resolution in Prince William Sound (PWS), a small (ca.100 km diameter by 400 m deep), two-strait, semi- enclosed sea influenced by highly variable alongshore flows on the external continental shelf. Realistic bottom topography, tidal forcing, and synoptic...

A conceptual design for a southeast United States regional coastal ocean observing system (RCOOS) is built upon a partnership between institutions of the region and among elements of the academic, government and private sectors. This design envisions support of a broad range of applications (e.g., marine operations, natural hazards, and ecosystem-b...

From 1994 to 1998, a multidisciplinary ecosystem study (the Sound Ecosystem Assessment) examined the primary physical and biological factors that influence the production of pink salmon and Pacific herring in Prince William Sound (PWS), species that experienced population declines after the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Three physical processes are...

The management of the SEACOOS program and its evolution over a five-year period are reviewed. The topics included pertain to the mechanisms used to create a consortium, define its mission, develop and manage its annual budget and tasking cycle; and the history of its focus over a five-year period. The management of SEACOOS was complex and required...

Physical processes affecting the dispersion of passive particles (e.g., coral larvae, pollutants) in the Upper Florida Keys are investigated through in situ observations (acoustic Doppler current profilers and surface drifters) and numerical ocean circulation modeling (horizontal resolution: 800 m, vertical resolution: 0.1–1 m). During the study pe...

Numerical simulations with a mesoscale-resolution, three-dimensional coastal ocean model, coupled to a four-component ecosystem model, provide estimates of the frequency, intensity, duration, and property transport of upwelling events along the East Florida Shelf (EFS), and help identify their underlying mechanisms. The results compare favorably wi...

The Straits of Florida (SoF) are considered an ideal habitat for cold-water corals with the north flowing Florida Current (FC) providing a continuous supply of food. The FC does, however, not fill the entire Straits and deep, opposing undercurrents and coastal countercurrents occur off Florida and the Bahamas. New observational and model data docum...

Transport and behavior of pink shrimp Farfantepenaeus duorarum larvae were investigated on the southwestern Florida (SWF) shelf of the Gulf of Mexico between the Dry Tortugas spawning grounds and Florida Bay nursery grounds. Stratified plankton samples and hydrographic data were collected at 2 h intervals at 3 stations located on a cross-shelf tran...

Most of the throughflow of the Intra-Americas Sea (IAS) passes through the Straits of Florida as the Florida Current. The Florida Current forms an intense jet and frontal system along the shelfbreak of the East Florida Shelf. It exhibits extrinsic variability associated with tides, synoptic weather systems, and seasonal and longer- term variations...

The Southeast Coastal Ocean Observing Regional Association (SECOORA) is maturing into an organization that can effectively coordinate the development and evolution of a comprehensive coastal ocean observing program for the Southeast U.S. Strategies are being developed to productively integrate the existing base of legacy assets (including observati...

A three-dimensional ocean circulation model is used to investigate the hydrodynamics of a tidal inlet and deltas system in Southeast Florida, and to understand the consequences for suspended and bedload sediment transport patterns. The model reproduces observed tidal currents and provides insight about residual currents caused by spatial asymmetrie...

[1] Despite its wide applications as a tool for feature extraction, the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) remains a black box to most meteorologists and oceanographers. This paper evaluates the feature extraction performance of the SOM by using artificial data representative of known patterns. The SOM is shown to extract the patterns of a linear progressiv...

The Development Plan for the coastal component of the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) calls for the "national backbone" to be augmented by regional coastal ocean observing systems (RCOOS). SEACOOS is an academically based pilot RCOOS for a four-state region in the Southeastern U.S. (North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida)...

The circulation in the Straits of Florida is dominated by the throughflow of the Florida Current, as modified by tidal flows, responses to atmospheric cold front and extratropical cyclone (easterly wave and tropical cyclone) passages in winter (summer), and intrinsic mesoscale variability due to instabilities of the Florida Current front and jet sy...

The Florida Current (FC) largely fills the Straits of Florida and is variable on a broad spectrum of time and space scales. Some portions of the variability are due to variable forcing by tides, winds, heating/cooling, and throughflow; other portions are due to intrinsic instabilities of the FC. To predict, as well as to better understand this comp...

With the ongoing development of ocean circulation models and real‐time observing systems, routine estimation of the synoptic state of the ocean is becoming feasible for practical and scientific purposes. The models can assist in ocean monitoring and regional dynamics studies, but only after they have been validated. For the first time, beginning 1...

The impacts of surface atmospheric forcing of different time–space scales on the simulation of water-mass formation and spreading of formed water are investigated by quantifying water-mass subduction/formation/transformation for the Japan/East Sea (JES). The Princeton Ocean Model (POM) was implemented for the JES (JES-POM) to simulate interannual,...

The Princeton Ocean Model (POM), as implemented for the Japan (East) Sea (JES) with mesoscale-admitting resolution is driven by seasonal throughflow and synoptic atmospheric forcing for 1999 through 2001. Temperature and salinity profiles from shipborne and PALACE float CTDs, and horizontal velocities at 800 m from PALACE float trajectories, plus h...

Realistic atmospheric, runoff, throughflow, and tidal forcing (in some cases) functions are used to drive a numerical simulation, using the Princeton Ocean Model (POM), of the seasonal cycle for Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska circulation during 1996. Physical observations from the Sound Ecosystem Assessment (SEA) Program are used to provide ini...

The transport of the Florida Current along the east coast of the United States has been monitored for over 20 years using voltages measured on telephone cables spanning the Straits of Florida and as such represents an important component of the Ocean Observing System. Previous studies using these transport measurements have documented decadal chang...

The East Florida Shelf Information System (EFSIS) is under development as part of the Southeast Atlantic Coastal Ocean Observing System (SEACOOS), which in turn is a prototype for a regional approach to the coastal ocean (i.e., EEZ) component of the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS). EFSIS utilizes the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) implemented...

As part of the OSRI (Oil Spill Recovery Institute, Cordova, Alaska) Program, the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented on a Cartesian grid (ca. 1.1 km resolution) and in sigma coordinates (15 to 21 levels, with concentrations nearsurface and nearbottom), for Prince William Sound (PWS) per se which is called PWS-POM, and for an extended d...

As part of the SEA-COOS (Southeast Atlantic-Coastal Ocean Observing System) Program, the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented on a curvilinear grid (ca. 2 to 10 km) and in sigma coordinates (25 levels, with concentrations nearsurface and nearbottom), for the East Florida Shelf (EFS), including all of the Straits of Florida, in both a ba...

The global significance of the tropics is unquestionable. The tropical seas are the engine of earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere; they are the locus of major biodiversity; and most of the world's five billion inhabitants live in the tropics. At the same time these environments strongly influence both social and economic activities in various ways....

11 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables.-- Full-text version available Open Access at: http://www.iim.csic.es/~barton/html/pdfs.html Hydrographic transects suggest an eastward flow with a subsurface core along the entire southern boundary of the Caribbean Sea. The transport of the coastal limb of the Panama-Colombia Gyre (PCG), known as the Panama-Colombia C...

The Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented for Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska. The PWS domain size is ca. 100 km and depth is ca. 500 m. PWS/POM has a grid of ca.1 km. and 20 sigma levels, and it is run with realistic atmospheric, throughflow, and tidal forcing for a few years. The model data are compared with time series of velocity,...

Interactions between the circulation of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, and that of the continental shelf region of the northern Gulf of Alaska are studied numerically. The focus is on the flow structure at Hinchinbrook Entrance (HE) and Montague Strait (MS) and the associated PWS interior circulation under various initial state and forcing con...

The Intra-Americas Sea (IAS) (Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Straits of Florida, and adjacent waters) is a semi-enclosed sea dominated by the throughflow of the Gulf Stream System that serves to link the physics, chemistry, ecology, and fisheries of the region. A regional GOOS, IAS-GOOS, has been conceived that exploits the geography and dynamics o...

The SEA-COOS initiative is an eleven-institution collaboration to begin development of a regional coastal ocean observing system for the southeast (North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida) United States. A three-pronged program of observing, modeling, and data management will be established while simultaneously conducting outreach studies of use...

A 3-D hybrid flow/transport model is developed to predict the dispersal of oil pollution in coastal waters. The transport module of the model takes predetermined current and turbulent diffusivities and uses Lagrangian tracking to predict the motion of individual particles (droplets), the sum of which constitutes a hypothetical oil spill. Currents a...

The Caribbean Sea is the least studied portion of the Intra-Americas Sea (IAS), which is the combined Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Straits of Florida, and the adjacent western North Atlantic. The upstream elements of the Gulf Stream System are the dominant features of the upper ocean circulation in the Caribbean Sea. The Trade Winds superimpose a...

A 3-D hybrid flow/transport model has been developed to predict the dispersal of oil pollution in coastal waters. The transport module of the model takes predetermined current and turbulent diffusivities and uses Lagrangian tracking to predict the motion of individual particles (droplets), the sum of which constitute a hypothetical oil spill. Curre...

With the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) currently in development, the worldwide oceanographic community is on the brink of “operational oceanography,” which essentially means provision of “operational ocean services” where “operational” means “routine” and “ocean services” means “marine environmental information.” GOOS is a joint campaign of...

Stan Wilson and Muriel Cole have provided an instructive comment on my original essay (It was interesting to learn that they are performing ballet and not opera, and doing the jitterbug and tango and not the waltz and foxtrot, as could have been feared.)For example, they revealed that at least 1,317 NOAA employees (i.e., approximately 10% of their...

Thirteen-month records for the period of April 1994-April 1995 from eight (out of nine) Coastal-Marine Automatic Network (C-MAN) stations in south Florida are analyzed statistically to study alongshore variability of observed atmospheric variables. The surface variables largely are statistically homogeneous and coherent along the Straits of Florida...

The POM (Princeton Ocean Model), a three-dimensional, primitive equation ocean circulation model, is applied to Prince William Sound, Alaska. A 3-D concentration equation for passive tracers is added to POM to explore transport pathways and rates, plus retention zones and residence times. The 3-D structures of the current, density, and passive trac...

A two-compartment model of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, is developed. One compartment, corresponding to the southern PWS, represents advective phenomena, while the other is dominated by diffusion. This simple model is shown to reproduce rather well the temporal evolution of the mass of a passive tracer contained in PWS simulated by a complex...

The Florida Current flows through the Straits of Florida, which starts as a zonal channel and turns to become a meridional channel. The spatial structure of the Florida Current and its transport, potential vorticity, and related dynamical properties are investigated using a three-dimensional, baroclinic, primitive equation model with a mesoscale-ad...

The SFOSRC is sponsored by the U.S. Coast Guard's R&D Center as a regional center-of-excellence. Three projects are underway: the Straits of Florida Nowcast/Forecast System (SFNFS), Oil Spill Information Management System (OSIMS), and National Marine Oil Transportation System (NMOTSM). SFNFS has evolved working-prototype, real-time circulation and...

This paper presents the development of a model of the marine oil transportation in the United States. NMOTSM, the National Marine Oil Transportation System Model, is a high-level strategic decision-making tool that will be used to systematically identify causes of oil spills and prioritize oil pollution R and D needs for prevention and response. Th...

To conduct studies of physical transport processes (e.g., oil spill and fish egg and larval trajectories and dispersion in the Straits of Florida), the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented with realistic bottom topography, density stratification, and a modest-resolution (5.6 km) grid. It is called SF-POM, and is driven by specified infl...

To support marine ecosystem and fisheries studies and monitoring in Prince William Sound (Alaska), the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) has been implemented on a high-resolution (1.2 km) grid, and with realistic bottom topography plus temperature and salinity stratification. The principal forcing of Prince William Sound (PWS) circulation is provided by...

This paper presents the architectural design of OSIMS (Oil Spill Information Management System), which is an integrated information management tool consisting of an object-relational database management system, an intelligent decision support system, an advanced visualization system (AVS) and a geographic information system (GIS). OSIMS will handle...

After successfully completing a critical design review for its Geosat Follow-On (GFO) radar altimeter satellite, the Navy is giving the green light for an early 1996 launch. GFO is a small (347 kg) highly capable satellite that capitalizes on both Geosat and TOPEX experience. GFO will fly in the exact orbit of Geosat, delivering real-time data dire...

The distributions of nutrient, pigment, bio-optical, and physical variables were mapped in a jet-eddy system off Point Reyes and Point Arena, California, from July 7 to 19, 1986, in order to describe the 3D variability of the filament and its relation to the nutrient and phytoplankton distributions offshore, to examine the interaction between the f...

INSMAP'90, the second in a series of quadrennial international symposia on marine positioning, was held October 15–19, 1990. INSMAP is organized by the Marine Geodesy Committee of the Marine Technology Society (MTS) with the co‐sponsorship of over 25 organizations of the United States and other countries, including the University of Miami's Rosenst...

Oceanic fronts have attributes in common with atmospheric fronts: for example, strong horizontal gradients in temperature and/or salinity and strong horizontal velocity shears and convergences. Their forcing mechanisms include tidally induced mixing, the advection of plumes, atmospherically driven upwelling, and deformation fields in oceanic flows....

The OPTOMA program sampled the California Current System mainly on the continental rise off Northern California from March 1982 to November 1986. Maps of surface dynamic height from OPTOMA surveys during summer show intense offshore jets and associated eddies in the coastal transition zone. The current meanders during summer tend to be sharper than...

The horizontal and vertical mesoscale physical structure of the broad, cold filament observed off Point Arena in advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) images in June and July 1986 are investigated. Small-scale intrusive features are shown in vertical sections of temperature and salinity from tow-yo conductivity-temperature-depth data. A...

Genetic markers were used to describe the transport of the calanoid copepod Metridia pacifica in a cool filament off Point Arena, California, in July 1986. The markers used were genetic variants of enzymes (allozymes); individual copepods were assayed for allozymic variability at nine enzyme-encoding genes (loci) by polyacrylamide gel electrophores...

Current meter data from a triad of moorings located on the continental rise offshore of Point Reyes-Point Arena and from a mooring site located about 250 km offshore and to the northwest of the array are analyzed. The continental rise moorings were deployed from October 1984 to July 1985, and each had five meters at depths from about 150 to about 3...

Based on two years (July 1978–June 1980) of current meter array measurements and bimonthly STD/XBT transects over the continental margin off central California, the mean California Undercurrent has a jet-like core in excess of 15 cm s−1 which is generally confined to the upper 300 m of the water column and to within 30 km of the coast. A comparison...

The series of cruises off Northern California comprising OPTOMA11, during two months in summer 1984, were specifically designed as an ocean prediction experiment. In addition to a regional survey from Cape Mendocino to Monterey, six surveys were made of a (150 km)2 domain offshore of Pt. Arena/Pt. Arena/Pt. Reyes. During the initial phase (over abo...

The U.S. Navy has established the Institute for Naval Oceanography (INO, in NSTL, Miss.), which has as its principal goal the development and demonstration of mesoscale eddy-resolving ocean prediction systems on a global basis. Data bases of meteorological and oceanographic variables are a component in understanding and predicting the dynamics of a...

Mesoscale variability off the Central California coast is strongly influenced by coastal upwelling and related processes. Off Point Sur, there is significant space-time variability in oceanic properties over periods of days and distances of several tens of km. However, the internal density field, averaged over space (ca. 120km alongshore) and time...

The OPTOMA (Ocean Prediction Through Observation, Modeling and Analysis) Program seeks to understand the mesoscale (fronts, eddies, and jets) variability and dynamics of the California Current System and to determine the scientific limits to practical mesoscale ocean forecasting. The cruise OPTOMA19 was undertaken in Feb. 1986 and covered a domain...

The major El Niño event of 1982-1983 affected the entire California Current system. The anomalous conditions along the west coast of North America were related to the equatorial anomalies and also to the anomalous atmospheric circulation in the northeast Pacific, where the Aleutian Low was east of its usual position and the associated 700-mbar heig...

In 1984, a workshop was held on climate variability in the eastern North Pacific and western North America. From it has emerged an annual series of workshops held at the Asilomar Conference Center, Monterey Peninsula, Calif. The workshops have been largely sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The third workshop in the series was held Mar...

The skill with which amplitudes of quasi-geostrophic modes can be estimated is important in the analysis and modeling of data from mixed CTD/XBT surveys. Here, several methods for estimation of quasi-geostrophic vertical mode amplitudes (QGMs) are compared, both in the context of idealized estimation and (especially) in application to some recent C...

The OPTOMA (Ocean Prediction Through Observations, Modeling and Analysis) Program, seeks to understand the mesoscale (fronts, eddies, and jets) variability and dynamics of the California Current System and to determine the scientific limits to practical mesoscale ocean forecasting. To help carry out the aims of this project, a series of cruises has...

Satellite IR imagery and in situ hydrographic data are used to understand better the mesoscale variability of the California Current system and to explore the relation of its surface and subsurface thermal structures. In August 1982, one of the cool filaments commonly seen in satellite IR images during summer off northern California was sampled hyd...

A synoptic oceanographic study was conducted in August 1978 at the Middle Atlantic shelfbreak along the shelf-slope front and over the Wilmington Canyon. Four masses (surface, cold pool, shelf, and slope waters) were identified from nutrients and hydrographic variables. Also identified were two pycnocline mixing regimes; one between cold pool and s...

Energetic eddy currents are the oceanic analogue of atmospheric weather and have time scales of days to weeks and space scales of tens to hundreds of kilometres1. We have predicted their evolution in time by internal dynamical processes. For the forecasts we transferred initialization data from ship- to shore-based computers, during two 2-week peri...

The benefits of satellite-based radar altimetry for oceanographic research are discussed in connection with the Seasat Altimeter Data Seminar. After a general review of the oceanographic data collected by the Seasat and GEOS-3 satellites, a number of criteria are proposed for the successful operation of a satellite-based radar altimeter for oceanog...

The Ocean Sciences Section of AGU recognizes Wayne V. Burt's 36 years of participation, leadership, and service in the oceanographic community. He earned his B.S. degree in Mathematics at Pacific College in 1939, and after serving in the former Naval Weather Service (including study at the Naval Postgraduate School while it was still in Annapolis),...

The instantaneous California Current is seen to consist of intense meandering current filaments (jets) intermingled with synoptic-mesoscale eddies. These quasi-geostrophic jets entrain cold, upwelled coastal waters and rapidly advect them far offshore; this behavior accounts for the elongated, cool surface features that are seen extending across th...

The Ocean Sciences Section of AGU recognizes the important, longstanding contributions of Robert E. Wall. Bob is rapidly approaching 20 years of dedicated and selfless service to the administration and promotion of ocean sciences within the federal government. He began his professional career as a staff scientist for marine geology and geophysics i...

The Ocean Sciences Section of the AGU recognizes W. Stanley Wilson for his unique leadership contributions to the emerging role of satellite measurements in oceanography. Through his persistent efforts the ocean sciences now stand on the brink of a new era that will merge conventional research techniques with new satellite technologies. Stan comple...

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In a previous paper, modeling predictions were made for the effect of a coastal upwelling on sound propagation. To verify these results, a sound propagation experiment was conducted across a moderately developed upwelling located at the Sur Canyon off the coast of California. A 1-kHz projector was towed through a sonobuoy field which spanned the up...

Weekly Gulf Stream paths within 1000 km downstream of Cape Hatteras were obtained for 1975–78 from the Navy's weekly EOFA charts based on satellite IR imagery. They displayed two dominant meander modes: first, a standing meander energetic over periods between 4 months and at least 4 years; and second. down-stream-propagating meanders that were most...

The Ocean Sciences Section of the American Geophysical Union wishes to recognize the outstanding contributions made by Richard C. Vetter. He will, at the end of June, complete a long and outstanding tenure at the National Academy of Sciences. We are told that Dick has actually served at the Academy for more than 25 years, but we find this hard to b...

As the ocean sciences have grown in size and scope and matured intellectually and institutionally, scientific communications in many forms have become increasingly important. Fortunately, the AGU offers a broad program of scientific communications. In recent years the AGU has responded to the newly articulated communications needs of the burgeoning...

In temperate continental shelf seas, high phytoplankton growth rates are normally restricted to two to three weeks in spring coinciding with the onset of stabilization of the water column and a large supply of nutrients. Thereafter production is slowed down because available nutrients are depleted and increased stability restricts the rate of recyc...

The seaward edge of the continental shelf, or shelf break, is the locus of strong physical variability in the overlying waters. Near the shelf-break, surface tides scatter energy into internal modes that propagate both onshore and offshore and produce strong vertical shears. Atmospheric forcing generates subinertial-frequency topographic Rossby wav...

The `first ever' oceanography section luncheon was held at Captain Johns Harbour Boat Restaurant, Toronto on May 24, 1980. Approximately 100 members were in attendance. Outgoing president Worth Nowlin reviewed some of the activities of the past year, including an increased emphasis on thematic sessions at annual meetings and an increase in AGU fell...

A quasi-synoptic study of the shelf water/slope water front off New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland in mid-July 1977 revealed an isolated body of very cold (<6 /sup 0/C) water in the near-bottom 'cold pool'. Its volume at least halved over 10 days during which nearby shelf waters were perturbed by two anticyclonic (warm core) eddies located over the...

The space time structure and variability of three thermal features on the surface of the Northwest Atlantic: the shelf water-slope water front; the Gulf Stream front; and warm-core, anticyclonic eddies: were examined between September 1, 1975, and August 31, 1977, using weekly satellite-derived charts of surface temperature fronts. The temporal and...

Two observed cases of mixed-layer (ML) deepening due to storms are analyzed and simulated. The primary goal is to learn whether the relevant scale velocity in the parameterization of wind-driven deepening is U, the wind stress friction velocity, or GAMMAdV, the magnitude of the horizontal mean velocity difference across the base of the ML. ML deepe...

Oceanic fronts are dynamical phenomena with many properties in common with atmospheric fronts. Fronts are the locus of intense horizontal gradients in one or more properties. Oceanic fronts are generated by atmospheric forcing (momentum, heat, and mass transfer),riverrunoff, and differential advection and mixing.Mixing is intense in fronts; thus, p...

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Oceanic fronts occur at the boundaries between water masses with one or more differing properties, such as temperature, salinity, density, color (turbidity), nutrients, and velocity. Atmospheric fronts are common to mankind's experience; their oceanic analogs are similar but less familiar. The most familiar oceanic fronts exist at the sea surface,...

Evidence for long coastal-trapped waves off the west coast of the United States is obtained from sea level, surface atmospheric pressure and wind records over a 1500 km alongshore separation for two months in the summer of 1973. Corresponding evidence is obtained from current measurements off the northern Oregon coast. The domimant low-frequency mo...

Temperature and current data sets from the Miami Continental Slope and Terrace regions along southeast Florida are summarized to show the temporal and spatial variability of near-bottom waters with temperatures ≤10°C (defined as the cold water source: CWS). The CWS is generally found offshore of the 100- to 300-m isobaths. The annual mean intersect...

Yearlong records of sea level, oceanic temperature, winds, and atmospheric pressure provide evidence of atmospherically induced subinertial frequency fluctuations in the Florida current. The dominant subinertial responses occurred at periods of 7–10 days in winter and 12–14 days in summer. Consistent with the theory of long stable continental shelf...