Sunda Shelf

▪ geological formation, Asia

      stable continental shelf, or platform, a southward extension of mainland Southeast Asia. Most of the platform is covered by shallow seas—including the southern South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand (Thailand, Gulf of), and the Java Sea—with depths averaging less than 330 feet (100 metres). Much of the Sunda Shelf's total area of 690,000 square miles (1,800,000 square km) is occupied by the Indonesian islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra. The shelf is separated from the Sahul Shelf (southeast) by the volcanic (and volcanically active) Lesser Sunda Islands and associated deeps. To the west and south, its limit is defined by the Java Trench, a deep and seismically active subduction zone. A massive earthquake in 2004, centred in this zone west of Sumatra, generated a large tsunami that devastated coastal areas in the region.

      The entire shelf was above sea level at one time. Evidence of this includes the remaining traces of a stream network, the channels of which cross north over the shelf into the South China Sea basin, and a second network going east into the Sunda Depression and the Flores Trough. Borneo and parts of Java, Sumatra, and associated islands are eroded metamorphic sections of the shelf left above sea level.

      The existence of the shelf was first reported in 1845 by G.W. Earl. Its economic importance grew after 1950, when reserves of petroleum and natural gas beneath the seafloor were exploited, particularly near Brunei and east of Malaysia.

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