Continental Shelf

Real World Example

Imagine you're at the beach, and you slowly wade into the water; it starts off shallow and gradually becomes deeper as you move further away from the shore. This gradual transition from shallow to deeper water is similar to how a continental shelf works, where the ocean floor starts at the edge of a continent and gently slopes downwards before dropping steeply into the deep ocean. Just like the beach where the water is shallow near the shore before suddenly getting deeper, the continental shelf is that initial shallow area of the ocean floor before it plunges into the deep sea, making it like a natural extension of the land beneath the ocean.