How wide is North America's continental shelf?

The average width of a continental shelf is 65 kilometers (40 miles). Most continental shelves are broad, gently sloping plains covered by relatively shallow water. Water depth over the continental shelves averages about 60 meters (200 feet).

1. Where is the continental shelf the widest in North America?
2. Where is the widest continental shelf in the world?
3. Where is the continental shelf in North America?
4. How wide is the largest continental shelf in the world?
5. What is the narrowest continental shelf?
6. How wide is the Atlantic continental shelf?
7. How wide is the continental shelf at Cape May?
8. Why western coast has wider continental shelf?
9. How deep are continental shelves?
10. How far out is the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico?
11. How deep is the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico?
12. Is the Deepest Indian Ocean Trench?
13. What is the average depth of continental slope?
14. What is the average depth of Atlantic Ocean?
15. Do islands have continental shelf?

Where is the continental shelf the widest in North America?

The average width of the shelf is 43 mi (70 km) and varies from tens of meters to approximately 800 mi (1,300 km) depending on location. The widest shelves are in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coasts of Siberia and North America .

Where is the widest continental shelf in the world?

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.

Where is the continental shelf in North America?

"The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf Large Marine Ecosystem (NES LME) encompasses an area of approximately 260,000 km² from Cape Hatteras in the south to the Gulf of Maine in the north.

How wide is the largest continental shelf in the world?

The largest shelf – the Siberian Shelf in the Arctic Ocean – stretches to 1,500 kilometers (930 mi) in width. The South China Sea lies over another extensive area of continental shelf, the Sunda Shelf, which joins Borneo, Sumatra, and Java to the Asian mainland.

What is the narrowest continental shelf?

The southern and northern ends are relatively wide, with width of 65–215 km; the middle is narrow, with the narrowest point of only 27 km. The slope edge of the continental shelf generally has water depth between 200 and 250 m.

How wide is the Atlantic continental shelf?

Nearest shore is the continental shelf, which ranges in width from less than 1 kilometer off Florida to more than 420 kilometers off Maine; it averages about 135 kilometers.

How wide is the continental shelf at Cape May?

The continental shelf is wide (. 150 km) in this region and the water depth at the shelf– slope break averages about 135 m (Table 3.1) (Heezen et al. 1959). The shelf can be roughly divided into inner (0–40 m), middle (c.

Why western coast has wider continental shelf?

The western coastal plains are submerged coastal plains and due to which have wider continental shelves which provides natural conditions for the development of ports and harbours and deposits of larger organic matters on shelves. ... Continental shelf is wider on the western coast of India than on the eastern coast2.

How deep are continental shelves?

The average width of a continental shelf is 65 kilometers (40 miles). Most continental shelves are broad, gently sloping plains covered by relatively shallow water. Water depth over the continental shelves averages about 60 meters (200 feet).

How far out is the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico?

The U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) includes the area between state jurisdiction to 200 nautical miles (nm) from shore. State jurisdiction over the seafloor extends from the shoreline out to 3 nm, except for Texas and the Florida Gulf Coast, which extend out to 9 nm.

How deep is the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico?

This change takes place at depths of water in some places as shallow as 400 feet, elsewhere as deep as 700 feet, but a sufficiently good approximation as to the outer edge of the shelf is the 200-meter (656 feet) depth contour which is depicted on the American Geographical Society's Map of the Americas, sheets 1A (1944 ...

Is the Deepest Indian Ocean Trench?

The Indian Ocean's average depth is 12,274 feet (3,741 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).

What is the average depth of continental slope?

The world's combined continental slope has a total length of approximately 300,000 km (200,000 miles) and descends at an average angle in excess of 4° from the shelf break at the edge of the continental shelf to the beginning of the ocean basins at depths of 100 to 3,200 metres (330 to 10,500 feet).

What is the average depth of Atlantic Ocean?

It has an average depth (with its seas) of 11,962 feet (3,646 metres) and a maximum depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 metres) in the Puerto Rico Trench, north of the island of Puerto Rico.

Do islands have continental shelf?

Islands. ... Islands possess the same maritime zones as other landmasses, including a territorial sea, contiguous zone, EEZ, and continental shelf. Islands do not need to be inhabited to create those maritime zones; they only need to be capable of sustaining human habitation or economic life.