continental shelf

noun

: a shallow submarine plain of varying width forming a border to a continent and typically ending in a comparatively steep slope to the deep ocean floor

Illustration of continental shelf

• 1 seashore
• 2 continental shelf
• 3 continental slope
• 4 abyssal plain
• 5 seamount

Examples of continental shelf in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The order, which according to the report is expected any day, would bar the sale of drilling rights in large portions of the outer continental shelf. —The Editors, National Review, 6 Jan. 2025

There are several reasons why Tampa is the most vulnerable U.S. city to storm surge, according to the 2015 report: First, the continental shelf is relatively wide off the west coast of Florida. —Doyle Rice, USA TODAY, 7 Oct. 2024

The continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico extends far offshore, up to 150 miles in some spots, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. —Julia Jacobo, ABC News, 8 Oct. 2024

Construction of such a berm, the researchers calculated, would require about three and a half billion cubic feet of gravel and sand, which, conveniently enough, could be excavated from Greenland’s continental shelf. —Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

continental shelf

noun

: a shallow submarine plain of varying width forming a border to a continent and typically ending at the continental slope