Abstract : Numerous studies along continental margins have documented a vast array of geological, biological, and oceanographic processes that shape the continental shelf, slope and rise. Because of their increased seafloor gradients, the slope and rise are in many ways more complex than the continental shelf. They are affected extensively by differential sediment accumulation, biological erosion, current scour, ground-water expulsion and sapping, gas-hydrate disassociation, slumping, sliding, debris flows, and turbidity currents. Environmental assessment of these areas, and particularly understanding operative processes and evaluating their effects in material transfer between the shelf and slope/rise, is of fundamental scientific interest and has important practical implications. Long-terms goals of our research are to assess the geomorphology and stratigraphy of the continental slope and rise off the eastern U.S., to understand the nature and efficacy of processes that have shaped these provinces, and to evaluate the potential that these processes have for further modification of the seabed.