The Philippine Rise

Abstract

The Philippine Rise, previously known as the Benham Rise, is a natural submarine prolongation of the Luzon Island extending up to 318 nautical miles (589 kilometers), from the Eastern Philippine Seaboard facing the Pacific Ocean. The Philippine Rise Region is comprised of the 200-nautical-mile continental shelf from the baselines of Luzon and the extension of the seabed and subsoil approximately up to 118 nautical miles beyond the legal continental shelf limits. In particular, it consists of a plateau and the Molave and Narra Spurs and Saddles in the east and northeast. It is docked to Luzon through the Palanan Saddle in the northwest and the Bicol Saddle in the southwest, and moves with it as a single unit. The Philippine Rise is geomorphologically distinct from the deep ocean fl oor and forms a thick crust lying at about 3,000–3,500 meters below sea level, except for the Benham Bank, its shallowest point, which towers up to 48–70 meters below sea level.