A recent analysis of continental slopes (Adams and Schlager, 2000) has established three basic shapes for classification: exponential, linear, and Gaussian. Examples of each of these shapes can be found on the middle US Atlantic margin, where sufficiently high-quality bathymetry data are available to investigate the systems of erosional canyons that incise the slopes. Significant morphological differences can be noted visually in these examples, suggesting that canyon systems can be classified in a quantitative manner. Here it is proposed that canyon system morphology can be distinguished by the downslope progression of cross-slope statistical parameters, particularly RMS relief. On the linear slope, rms relief decreases with depth, whereas rms relief increases on the exponentially shaped slope. On the Gaussian shaped slope, rms relief is roughly constant, with minor variations. This straightforward method of classification may hold great promise for systematically investigating relationships between slope canyons and their formative environments. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union