epicontinental

American  

[ep-i-kon-tn-en-tl] / ˌɛp ɪˌkɒn tnˈɛn tl /

adjective

1. found or located in or on a continent.

   epicontinental minerals; an epicontinental sea.

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epicontinental British  

/ ˌɛpɪˌkɒntɪˈnɛntəl /

adjective

1. (esp of a sea) situated on a continental shelf or continent

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Etymology

Origin of epicontinental

First recorded in 1900–05; epi- + continental

Example Sentences

We need not regard this epicontinental sea as deep.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

The epicontinental sea was shoaled and narrowed, and muds were washed in from the adjacent lands.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

In the interior the Mississippian is composed chiefly of limestones, with some shales, which tell of a clear, warm, epicontinental sea swarming with crinoids, corals, and shells, and occasionally clouded with silt from the land.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

We can hardly account for this except by a shallow-water connection between the two ancient epicontinental seas.

From The Elements of Geology by Norton, William Harmon

The great interior sea, epicontinental, the geologists call it, seems to have been fermenting and laboring for untold aeons in building up these parts of the continent.

From Time and Change by Burroughs, John