Continental shelf

A continental shelf is a portion of a <a href="/facts/Continent/Pysd9Sw8">continent</a> that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in <a href="/facts/Sea_level/mDhuI7Xe">sea level</a> during <a href="/facts/Glacial_period/alIAm38r">glacial periods</a>. The shelf surrounding an <a href="/facts/Island/46Apq1bJ">island</a> is known as an "insular shelf."
The <a href="/facts/Continental_margin/Wgc47bX7">continental margin</a>, between the continental shelf and the <a href="/facts/Abyssal_plain/UWv7Tt5b">abyssal plain</a>, comprises a steep continental slope, surrounded by the flatter <a href="/facts/Continental_rise/WgkU7zA3">continental rise</a>, in which <a href="/facts/Sediment/zsIH1A6U">sediment</a> from the continent above cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope. Extending as far as 500 km (310 mi) from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by <a href="/facts/Turbidity_current/GkwnfNfa">turbidity currents</a> from the shelf and slope. The <a href="/facts/Continental_rise/WgkU7zA3">continental rise</a>'s <a href="/facts/Grade_(slope)/SlyxwANp">gradient</a> is intermediate between the gradients of the slope and the shelf.
Under the <a href="/facts/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea/t2PtV3aq">United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea</a>, the name continental shelf was given a legal definition as the stretch of the <a href="/facts/Seabed/VvxuEWJu">seabed</a> adjacent to the shores of a particular country to which it belongs.

Continental shelf open-in-new

Continental shelf