Continental shelf
The continental shelf is the extendit perimeter o each continent an associatit coastal plain. The shelf surroondin an island is kent as an insular shelf. Much o the shelf wis exponed durin glacial periods, but it is nou submerged unner relatively shallae seas (kent as shelf seas) an gulfs an wis similarly submerged durin ither interglacial periods.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/32/Continental_shelf.png/350px-Continental_shelf.png)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/93/Elevation.jpg/350px-Elevation.jpg)
The continental margin, atween the continental shelf an the abyssal plain, comprises a steep continental slope follaed bi the flatter continental rise. Sediment frae the continent abuin cascades doun the slope an accumulates as a pile o sediment at the base o the slope, cried the continental rise. Extendin as far as 500 km frae the slope, it consists o thick sediments depositit bi turbidity currents frae the shelf an slope.[1] The continental rise's gradient is intermediate atween the slope an the shelf, on the order o 0.5–1°.[2]
Unner the Unitit Naitions Convention on the Law o the Sea, the name continental shelf wis gien a legal defineetion as the stretch o the seabed adjacent tae the shores o a pairticular kintra tae which it belangs.