Multibeam bathymetry documents a lack of any significant channels crossing the western Ross Sea outer continental shelf and slope, indicating that movement of bottom water across the shelf break and into the deep ocean in this area is mainly by laminar or sheet flow. Subtle, ~20 m deep and 1000 m wide channels extend down the continental slope and into dendritic style drainage patterns on the upper rise, and then into major erosional submarine canyons. These downslope channels may have been formed by episodic pulses of rapid water flow, some recorded on bottom current meters. Narrow, mostly linear channels on the continental shelf thought to be caused by iceberg scouring are randomly oriented, have widths generally less than 400 m and depths less than 30m, and extend to water depths in excess of 600m.