The continental shelf is a gently sloping and relatively flat extension of a continent that is covered by the oceans. Seaward, the shelf ends abruptly at the shelf break, the boundary that separates the shelf from the continental slope. The shelf...

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, which is covered during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas (known as shelf seas) and...

The U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS); and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed, about $6 billion in revenues from federal offshore mineral...

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) is the federal authority designated by the Department of the Interior to manage mineral resource development on the 1.76 billion acres of offshore federal lands. As the federal oceans mineral land manager, MMS has worked diligently for 20 years...

It has been a while since anyone could say the sun never sets on the British Empire. But Britain is again trying to extend its reach — this time to potentially lucrative seabeds in the Antarctic and the Atlantic Ocean.The land grab is part of...

A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker is headed to the Arctic to map the sea floor off Alaska, as Russia, Denmark and Canada assert their claims in the polar region, which has potential oil and gas reserves.The lead scientist on the expedition scoffs at the political...