epicontinental

[ ep-i-kon-tn-en-tl ]

adjective

1. found or located in or on a continent:

   epicontinental minerals; an epicontinental sea.

epicontinental

/ ˌɛpɪˌkɒntɪˈnɛntəl /

adjective

1. (esp of a sea) situated on a continental shelf or continent

Word History and Origins

Origin of epicontinental¹

First recorded in 1900–05; epi- + continental

Example Sentences

Professor Nathalie Bardet, from the NMNH, said: "The Phosphates of Morocco deposit in a shallow and warm epicontinental sea, under a system of upwellings; these zones are caused by currents of deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters rising towards the surface, providing food for large numbers of sea creatures and, as a result, supporting a lot of predators. This is probably one of the explanations for this extraordinary paleobiodiversity observed in Morocco at the end of the Cretaceous."

From Science Daily

Paleocene–Eocene warming and biotic response in the epicontinental West Siberian Sea.

From Nature

During that period, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, the Mesabi Iron Range was thought to be on the edge of the Epicontinental Seaway that cut the continent in half.

From Washington Times

If such a change in storminess had occurred when terrestrial conditions were unfavorable for glaciation, as, for example, when the lands were low and there were widespread epicontinental seas in middle and high latitudes, glaciation might not have resulted.

From Project Gutenberg

The Eocene sea covered at various times a strip of the Atlantic coast from New Jersey southward and sent a great tongue or bay up the Mississippi valley; similar epicontinental seas spread over parts of the Pacific border, but the plains of the interior with the mountains on the west were meanwhile being filled with terrestrial and lacustrine deposits which attained an enormous development.

From Project Gutenberg