What Is Continental Shelf In Geography

Physical geography the sea bed surrounding a continent at depths of up to about 200 metres 100 fathoms at the edge of which the continental slope drops steeply to the ocean floor.

What is continental shelf in geography.

Continental shelf a broad relatively shallow submarine terrace of continental crust forming the edge of a continental landmass. Most of the platform is covered by shallow seas including the southern south china sea the gulf of thailand and the java sea with depths averaging less than 330 feet 100 metres. A continental shelf is the edge of a continent lying beneath the ocean. Greenland 840 000 square miles 2 175 000 square km the largest island is composed of the same materials.

A continental shelf is the edge of a continent that lies under the ocean. Sunda shelf stable continental shelf or platform a southward extension of mainland southeast asia. Continental shelf and coastal regions it was recognized as early as 1842 that a logical consequence of a glacial age would be a large scale withdrawal of ocean water. Much of these shelves has been exposed during glacial periods and interglacial periods.

The shelf surrounding an island is known as an insular shelf. From the break the shelf descends into the deep ocean floor in the form of a continental slope according to national geographic education nge. Continental island s are simply unsubmerged parts of the continental shelf that are entirely surrounded by water. The age of these rocks is in all cases greater than 540 million years and radiometric age dating has revealed some that are as old as 2 to 3 billion years.

The geology of continental shelves is often similar to that of the adjacent exposed portion of the continent and most shelves have a gently rolling topography called ridge and swale. The shelf is built up from sediments washed down to the sea by rivers. This shelf extends from the coastline of a continent to a drop off point called the shelf break. A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea.

Continents are the seven main divisions of land on earth. Many of the larger islands of the world are of the continental type. From the break the shelf descends toward the deep ocean floor in what is called the continental slope. Notes for continental shelf.

Consequently deglaciation would produce a postglacial glacioeustatic transgression of the seas across the continental shelf. A continental shelf extends from the coastline of a continent to a drop off point called the shelf break.