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What deposits are found on continental shelves?

What deposits are found on continental shelves?

Deposits of several types of minerals on the continental shelves of the world are characteristic of the environment in which they are found, such as the phosphorite, glauconite, and calcareous shell deposits.

What are the two other names of the continental shelf?

What is another word for continental shelf?

continental platform continental slope
land bridge offshore rights
submarine canyon territorial waters
three-mile limit twelve-mile limit
inland waters

What is the most famous continental shelf?

Famous Continental Shelves The North Sea that borders the northern European and Scandinavian countries is a shallow sea that lies above the continental shelf of Europe with an average depth of 300 feet. The South China Sea covers a large shelf that includes Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Asian mainland.

Where are some continental shelves?

Exceptionally broad shelves occur off northern Australia and Argentina. The world’s largest continental shelf extends 1,500 km (about 930 miles) from the coast of Siberia into the Arctic Ocean. Continental shelves are usually covered with a layer of sand, silts, and silty muds.

What type of sediment dominates the continental shelf?

Lithogenous sediment dominates this type of sediment, and is found on the continental shelf, slope, and rise. Examples of this type of lithogenous sediment include continental shelf deposits, beach deposits, glacial deposits, and turbidite deposits.

What lives in the continental shelf?

Lobster, Dungeness crab, tuna, cod, halibut, sole and mackerel can be found. Permanent rock fixtures are home to anemones, sponges, clams, oysters, scallops, mussels and coral. Larger animals such as whales and sea turtles can be seen in continental shelf areas as they follow migration routes.

Which is the largest continental shelf in India?

The Indian state of Gujarat had the highest continental shelf area, amounting to about 184,000 square kilometers, followed by the state of Maharashtra….Area of India’s continental shelves, based on state (in 1,000 square kilometers)

Characteristic Area in thousand square kilometers

What are the most abundant sediment size deposits on the continental shelf?

1) Terrigenous Sediments: These sediments originate from the continents from erosion, volcanism and wind transported material. These are the most abundant sediments.

Which type of marine sediments include space dust and meteors?

Some dust and particles found as ocean sediments come from space. Space dust, asteroids and meteors form cosmogenous sediment. Cosmic dust sometimes forms particles called tektites, which contain high concentrations of iridium.

What is the geology of the continental shelves?

The geology of the continental shelves is often similar to that of the adjacent exposed portion of the continent, and most of them have a slightly undulating topography known as crest and valleys. The continental shelves represent approximately eight percent of the entire area covered by the oceans.

What kind of minerals are found on the continental shelf?

Although micas, feldspars, and other silicates, as well as quartz, form the bulk of the material on most beaches, considerable quantities of valuable minerals such as columbite, magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, and zircon are also commonly found. Structure. A continental shelf typically extends from the coast to depths of 100–200 metres (330–660 feet).

How is the continental shelf similar to the seafloor?

The continental shelf is the shallow seafloor, generally less than 200m in water depth, which surrounds continents and islands. Geologically, the shelf is similar to the rest of the continent in that its foundation is comprised of granitic crustal material.

How is sediment transported on the continental shelf?

Continental shelves are a dynamic area of sediment transport and as a result, most sediment supplied by rivers transits across continental shelves before being deposited offshore. Sanjeev Rajput, Naresh Kumar Thakur, in Geological Controls for Gas Hydrate Formations and Unconventionals, 2016