Examples from literature

• If this action operated alone, the subtraction which the friction makes would cause the surf waves which roll in over a continental shelf to be very low, probably in height less than half that which they now attain. 
• Near the coast line the effect of the waves is continually to shove the detritus up the slopes of the continental shelf. 
• Our line of soundings showed the transition from the ocean depths to the continental shelf. 
• The continental shelf is simply a submerged plateau surrounding all the continent, the "Big Lead" marking the northern edge of that shelf where it dips into the polar sea.