Antarctic continental shelf

The Antarctic continental shelf is a submerged piece of the Antarctic continent that underlies a portion of the Southern Ocean — the ocean which surrounds Antarctica. The shelf is generally narrow and unusually deep, its edge lying at depths averaging 500 meters (the global mean is around 100 meters), with troughs extending as far as 2000 meters deep. It plays a role in biogeochemical cycling, maintaining global climate, and the overall functioning of its ecosystem After being formed, the Antarctic continental shelf has been further deepened by the processes of thermal subsidence, ice sheet loading, and erosion over the past 34 million years.