The continental shelf is an undersea extension of a continent which can stretch for many miles out to sea in some cases. Many nations have asserted mineral and land rights to their associated continental shelves, since this region of the ocean is rich in natural resources such as marine life.
Minerals on the continental shelf are also significantly easier to extract than minerals on the floor of the ocean, since the continental shelf is relatively shallow by comparison. By convention, many countries defend their continental shelves as territorial waters, since they are concerned about the exploitation of their natural resources.
There are actually several parts to the continental shelf. The first part is the shelf itself, which starts below the shoreline of a continent. The shelf slopes gently as it stretches towards the deeper part of the ocean, until it reaches a certain point and drops off sharply, causing the waters above to rapidly become much deeper. This drop is called the continental break, and it occurs uniformly at around 460 feet (140 meters) of depth. It has been theorized that the continental break may mark the former sea level of the world's oceans.
After the continental break, the continental shelf takes a sharp downward turn, creating a geological feature called the continental slope. This feature transitions into the continental rise, a deposit of sediments which forms as a result of river and stream run off from the neighboring continent. Beyond the continental rise, one finds the ocean floor, along with a host of fascinating plant and animal life which remains largely unexplored due to the inaccessibility of the ocean floor.
In some instances, the continental shelf is very short, as is the case in subduction zones where one tectonic plate is being sucked below another. A well known example of a subduction zone can be found in the waters off the coast of Chile. In other cases, the continental shelf stretches for many miles out to sea. The feature is often visible from overhead, if the viewer looks for a marked change in the color of the water which reflects a sudden change in depth.
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Dhaka, Jan 9 (bdnews24.com) – The government is going to make its official submission in February to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf for demarcating the outer limits of its continental shelf.
"We've taken our best preparation to make our claim and after vetting by the ministries concerned draft claim will be approved by the cabinet. Hopefully, we can submit it by the end of February," foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni said after an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue on Sunday.
According to the continental shelf formula of 1982, a country can claim over 350 nautical miles outer limits from its coastline.
"We're submitting he proposal five months ahead of the schedule, as the sooner we submit the better it is for us," she said.
Bangladesh was scheduled to submit the report by July this year and it is the 53rd country in the world making the claim.
"The government will validate its claim by producing all relevant data and analyses, and it'll take eight to 10 years to reach a conclusion," Dipu said.
India and Myanmar have already submitted their claims on the outer limits of the continental shelf and Bangladesh has lodged 'objections' against their claims, she said.
"It's possible that they will also lodge similar objection to our claim and all the claims will then be taken into consideration when all of us will withdraw our objections," she explained.
Additional secretary Khorshed Alam said, "We've claimed over 400 nautical miles the size of the continental shelf is as big as Bangladesh."
The main dispute with India and Myanmar is that they have claimed on the basis of equidistance but Bangladesh has claimed on the basis of equity. "We've a good chance to win the claim as in 1967 Germany won similar claim against the Netherlands and Denmark," he said.
Bangladesh has already filed legal dispute against India and Myanmar for settlement of sea delimitation.
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