Charleston Bump
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Charleston Bump is a deepwater rocky ocean bottom feature approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of
Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...
. The Bump, rising from the
Blake Plateau The Blake Plateau lies in the western Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in the southeastern United States. The Blake Plateau lies between the North American continental shelf and the deep ocean ...
, lies in the path of the
Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...
and deflects the Gulf Stream offshore away from the coast of the eastern United States. This deflection amplifies downstream eddies and gyres and enhances upwelling of nutrient rich waters onto the continental shelf. These nutrient inputs support an ecosystem of plankton, fish, and other sea life. Large populations of
wreckfish The wreckfish are a small group of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Polyprion'', belonging to the monotypic family Polyprionidae in the order Acropomatiformes. They are deep-water marine fish and can be found on the ocean bottom, where they inhab ...
can be found in the cave systems in this area.


References

# # {{Coord, 31.7, -78.8, dim:300000, display=title Geology of the Atlantic Ocean