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The north flowing Falkland / Malvinas Current has generated sediment drifts at a depth of 1200-1600 m in the Patagonian middle continental slope out of early Holocene hemipelagics, late Pleistocene ice rafted clastics, and Neogene fluvial sediments. Possibly there may be two generations of drifts, Pleistocene on the outer middle slope and Holocene on the inner shelf. The ice rafted debris originated in Antarctica, at a distance of 2000 to 4000 km south of Patagonia. Scattered over the upper and middle slopes, at depths ranging from 300 to 1400 m, are cold-water coral reefs of less than a meter to about ten of meters in relief. It is inferred that most of cold-water coral structures flourish as a consequence of the Falkland /Malvinas Current that concentrates the food supply at the reef sites. Growth of cold-water coral reefs, documented by digital submarine photographs on the upper slope, at a depth of 300/400 m, may be promoted by upwelling 2 of nutrient-rich waters and associated plankton blooms created by the intrusion of Falkland /Malvinas Current onto the outer shelf.

The twenty species of Scleractinia (all azooxanthellate) known to occur off Argentina and the Falkland Islands (the Atlantic component of the cold temperate Magellan Province) are discussed, 15 of which are documented by new records. Five new species are described: Caryophyllia kellerae, C. coronula, Solenosmilia australis, Flabellum cinctutum, and Javania cristata. Five geographic and nine bathymetric range extensions are also documented. A brief history of species discovery in this region is given, and a key to the species is provided.

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