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I don't know. I wonder myself. But here's a simplistic guess: ... take the east coast of the USA. North America basically split apart from Europe/Africa. The Atlantic trench keeps bringing magma/lava up to the ocean floor, pushing Europe/Africa and the Americas further apart from each other. Maybe the end of the continental shelf is the location where Pangaea split apart? Forming a deep hole, which has stretched out further and further and covers most of the Atlantic. So the shelf could easily be above sea level, or maybe it was at one time in the past? I don't know why continents have plains above sea level while the oceans have plains *so much* lower in altitude, nor do I know why sea level is at a very close level to the continental shelf.

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16y ago

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What continental shelf continental slope and continental rise combine to form the what?

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