Problem of the shelf origin

Abstract

Shelf is a marginal zone of continents which was transformed' by tectonics during formation of the oceanic basins at Mesozoic-Cenozoic time, its topography and sediments were strongly influenced by marine transgressions and regressions at Pleistocene-Holocene. At present they are modeled by hydrogenic (waves and currents) and gravitational processes. Geological structure, tectonic development, Pleistocene history, present-day topography and sediments reflect processes which acted within the ocean and at land and resulted in creation of the morphostructure of transitional type.