CONTINENTAL SHELF

A submerged border of a continent that slopes gradually and extends to a point of

steeper descent to the ocean bottom.
Broad, relatively shallow submarine platform that forms a border to a continent,
typically extending from the coast to depths of 330 660 ft (100 200 m). Continental
shelves average about 40 mi (65 km) in width. Almost everywhere they are simply a
continuation of the continental landmass: narrow, rough, and steep off mountainous
coasts but broad and comparatively level offshore from plains. Continental shelves are
usually covered with a layer of sand, silts, and silty muds. Their surfaces feature small
hills and ridges that alternate with shallow depressions and valley-like troughs. In a
few cases, steep-walled V-shaped submarine canyons cut deeply into both the shelf and
the slope below
The gently sloping submarine fringe of a continent. This is ended by a steep
continental slope which occurs at around 150 m below sea level. The UN Convention
on the Continental Shelf of 1958 granted stated the right to mineral exploitation up to
a depth of 200 m in their coastal waters, together with permission to authorize the
construction of drilling rigs and the like, although such structures were not to be
considered as islands. All this changed when the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of
the Sea came into force; the continental shelf has a legal limit of up to 200 nautical
miles from the coastline, and states have exclusive rights to all natural resources
within that limit.
The region adjoining the coastline of a continent, where the ocean is no more than a
few hundred feet deep. The shelf is built up from sediments washed down to the sea by
rivers.
The continental shelves are often valuable because of the mineral resources and
abundant marine life found there. (See offshore drilling.)
The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated
coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea
during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas (known
as shelf seas) and gulfs.
The continental rise is below the slope, but landward of the abyssal plains. Its gradient
is intermediate between the slope and the shelf, on the order of 0.5-1.[1] Extending as
far as 500 km from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity
currents from the shelf and slope. Sediment cascades down the slope and accumulates
as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope, called the continental rise.[2]
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the name continental
shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the seabed adjacent to the shores of

a particular country to which it belongs. Such shores are also known as Territorial
waters.

Geographical distribution
The width of the continental shelf varies considerably it is not uncommon for an area to
have virtually no shelf at all, particularly where the forward edge of an advancing oceanic
plate dives beneath continental crust in an offshore subduction zone such as off the coast
of Chile or the west coast of Sumatra. The largest shelf the Siberian Shelf in the Arctic
Ocean stretches to 1500 kilometers (930 miles) in width. The South China Sea lies over
another extensive area of continental shelf, the Sunda Shelf, which joins Borneo,
Sumatra, and Java to the Asian mainland. Other familiar bodies of water that overlie
continental shelves are the North Sea and the Persian Gulf. The average width of
continental shelves is about 80 km (50 mi). The depth of the shelf also varies, but is
generally limited to water shallower than 150 m (490 ft).[3] The slope of the shelf is
usually quite low, on the order of 0.5; vertical relief is also minimal, at less than 20 m
(66 ft).[4]
Though the continental shelf is treated as a physiographic province of the ocean, it is not
part of the deep ocean basin proper, but the flooded margins of the continent.[5] Passive
continental margins such as most of the Atlantic coasts have wide and shallow shelves,
made of thick sedimentary wedges derived from long erosion of a neighboring continent.
Active continental margins have narrow, relatively steep shelves, due to frequent
earthquakes that move sediment to the deep sea.[6]

Topography

Sediment

Rock

Mantle

The shelf usually ends at a point of decreasing slope (called the shelf break). The sea
floor below the break is the continental slope. Below the slope is the continental rise,
which finally merges into the deep ocean floor, the abyssal plain. The continental shelf
and the slope are part of the continental margin.
The shelf area is commonly subdivided into the inner continental shelf, mid
continental shelf, and outer continental shelf, each with their specific geomorphology
and marine biology.
The character of the shelf changes dramatically at the shelf break, where the continental
slope begins. With a few exceptions, the shelf break is located at a remarkably uniform
depth of roughly 140 m (460 ft); this is likely a hallmark of past ice ages, when sea level
was lower than it is now.[7]
The continental slope is much steeper than the shelf; the average angle is 3, but it can be
as low as 1 or as high as 10.[8] The slope is often cut with submarine canyons. The
physical mechanisms involved in forming these canyons was not well understood until
the 1960s.[9]

Sediments
The continental shelves are covered by terrigenous sediments; that is, those derived from
erosion of the continents. However, little of the sediment is from current rivers; some 6070% of the sediment on the world's shelves is relict sediment, deposited during the last
ice age, when sea level was 100-120 m lower than it is now.[10]
Sediments usually become increasingly fine with distance from the coast; sand is limited
to shallow, wave-agitated waters, while silt and clays are deposited in quieter, deep water
far offshore.[11] These shelf sediments accumulate at an average rate of 30 cm/1000 years,
with a range from 15-40 cm.[12] Though slow by human standards, this rate is much faster
than that for deep-sea pelagic sediments.

Biota
Combined with the sunlight available in shallow waters, the continental shelves teem
with life, compared to the biotic desert of the oceans' abyssal plain. The pelagic (water
column) environment of the continental shelf constitutes the neritic zone, and the benthic
(sea floor) province of the shelf is the sublittoral zone.[13]
Though the shelves are usually fertile, if anoxic conditions in the sedimentary deposits
prevail, the shelves may in geologic time become sources of fossil fuels.

Economic significance
The relatively accessible continental shelf is the best understood part of the ocean floor.
Most commercial exploitation from the sea, such as metallic-ore, non-metallic ore, and
hydrocarbon extraction, takes place on the continental shelf. Sovereign rights over their
continental shelves up to 350 nautical miles from the coast were claimed by the marine
nations that signed the Convention on the Continental Shelf drawn up by the UN's
International Law Commission in 1958 partly superseded by the 1982 United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea.[14]