continental shelf

American  

noun

Physical Geography.

1. the part of a continent that is submerged in relatively shallow sea.

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continental shelf British  

noun

1. 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

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continental shelf Scientific  

1. The part of the edge of a continent between the shoreline and the continental slope. It is covered by shallow ocean waters and has a very gentle slope.

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continental shelf Cultural  

1. 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.

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Discover More

The continental shelves are often valuable because of the mineral resources and abundant marine life found there. (See offshore drilling.)

Etymology

Origin of continental shelf

First recorded in 1940–45

Example Sentences

Equinor has an ambition to maintain approximately the same production level in 2035 as in 2020, corresponding to around 1.2 million barrels of oil and gas a day from the Norwegian continental shelf.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 2, 2026

Tides will now be lifting it up and down, and where it is touching the continental shelf, it will grind backwards and forwards, eroding the rock and ice.

From BBC • Mar. 4, 2025

But as it pushes up against the continental shelf, it can generate eddies, much like the revolving pools of water that form on the downstream sides of boulders in a river.

From Science Magazine • Apr. 15, 2024

Conversely, there is a decline in primary production on much of the Russian continental shelf.

From Science Daily • Mar. 4, 2024

At such times the ridge came down, and the continental shelf, so to speak, stretched out, and the algae along the shore became so slack that I tended to catch my feet in it.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel