|
Inlet
An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea. Overview In marine geography, the term "inlet" usually refers to either the actual channel between an enclosed bay and the open ocean and is often called an "entrance", or a significant recession in the shore of a sea, lake or large river. A certain kind of inlet created by past glaciation is a fjord, typically but not always in mountainous coastlines and also in montane lakes. Multi-arm complexes of large inlets or fjords may be called sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...s, e.g., Puget Sound, Howe Sound, Karmsund (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fjord
In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the northern and southern hemispheres. Norway's coastline is estimated to be long with its nearly 1,200 fjords, but only long excluding the fjords. Formation A true fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. According to the standard model, glaciers formed in pre-glacial valleys with a gently sloping valley floor. The work of the glacier then left an overdeepened U-shaped valley that ends abruptly at a valley or trough end. Such valleys are fjords when flooded by the ocean. Thresholds above sea level create freshwater lakes. Glacial melting is accompanied by the rebounding of Earth's crust as the ice load and eroded sediment is removed (also called isostasy or gla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barrier Island
Barrier islands are a Coast#Landforms, coastal landform, a type of dune, dune system and sand island, where an area of sand has been formed by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything from a few islands to more than a dozen. They are subject to change during storms and other action, but absorb energy and protect the coastlines and create areas of protected waters where wetlands may flourish. A barrier chain may extend for hundreds of kilometers, with islands periodically separated by tidal inlets. The longest barrier island in the world is Padre Island of Texas, United States, at long. Sometimes an important inlet may close permanently, transforming an island into a peninsula, thus creating a barrier peninsula, often including a beach, barrier beach. Though many are long and narrow, the length and width of barriers and overall morphology of barrier coasts are related to parameters including tidal range, wave ener ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Body Of Water
A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rarely, puddles. A body of water does not have to be still or contained; rivers, streams, canals, and other Landform, geographical features where water moves from one place to another are also considered bodies of water. Most are naturally occurring and massive geographical features, but some are artificial. There are types that can be either. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, but some natural lakes are used as reservoirs. Similarly, most harbors are naturally occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction. Bodies of water that are Navigability, navigable are known as waterways. Some bodies of water collect and move water, such as rivers and streams, and others primarily hold water, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portland Canal
Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is approximately long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language is ', with meaning "at the back of (someplace)". The upper end of the inlet was home to the Tsetsaut ( in Nisgaʼa), who after being decimated by war and disease were taken under the protection of the Laxsgiik (Eagle) chief of the Nisgaʼa, who holds the inlet's title in native law. Despite its naming as a canal, the inlet is a fjord, a completely natural and not man-made geographic feature, and extends northward from the Portland Inlet at Pearse Island, British Columbia, to Stewart, British Columbia, and Hyder, Alaska. Observatory Inlet joins the Portland Canal at Ramsden Point, where both merge with Portland Inlet. Pearse Canal joins Portland Canal at the north end of Pearse Island. Portland C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lynn Canal
Lynn Canal is an inlet (not an artificial canal) into the mainland of southeast Alaska. Lynn Canal runs about from the inlets of the Chilkat River south to Chatham Strait and Stephens Passage. At over in depth, Lynn Canal is the deepest fjord in North America (outside Greenland) and one of the deepest and longest in the world. The northern portion of the canal braids into the respective Chilkat, Chilkoot, and Taiya Inlets. The Tlingit are the indigenous people of the Lynn Canal's shores and waterways. The inlet was explored for the Royal Navy by Joseph Whidbey in 1794 and named by George Vancouver for his birthplace, King's Lynn, Norfolk, England. Lynn Canal was frequently visited by maritime fur traders from at least 1800. The ''Atahualpa'' visited in 1801 and its log mentions an earlier trading visit by an unidentified ship. In April 1811 the American maritime fur trader Samuel Hill, captain of ''Otter'', battled the Chilkat Tlingit in the Chilkat Inlet of Lynn Ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound (geography)
In geography, a sound is a smaller body of water usually connected to a sea or an ocean. A ''sound'' may be an inlet that is deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord; or a narrow sea channel or an ocean channel between two land masses, such as a strait; or also a lagoon between a barrier island and the mainland. Overview A sound is often formed by the seas flooding a river valley. This produces a long inlet where the sloping valley hillsides descend to sea-level and continue beneath the water to form a sloping sea floor. These sounds are more appropriately called rias. The Marlborough Sounds in New Zealand are good examples of this type of formation. Sometimes a sound is produced by a glacier carving out a valley on a coast then receding, or the sea invading a glacier valley. The glacier produces a sound that often has steep, near vertical sides that extend deep underwater. The sea floor is often flat and deeper at the landward end than the seaward end, due to g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagoon
A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') and ''atoll lagoons''. They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as Estuary, estuaries. Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world. Definition and terminology Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from a larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal, reef, coral reef, or similar feature. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of "lagoon", while others explicitly restrict "lagoon" to bodies of water with some degree of salinity. The distinction between "lagoon" and "estuary" also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dean Channel
Dean Channel is the upper end of one of the longest inlets of the British Columbia Coast, from its head at the mouth of the Kimsquit River. The Dean River, one of the main rivers of the Coast Mountains, enters Dean Channel about below the head of the inlet, at the community of Kimsquit. History Dean Channel was named by Captain Vancouver in 1793 after Rev. James King, Dean of Raphoe, Ireland. The channel was surveyed by Captain Richards in 1861 of HMS ''Hecate''. It is located within the Central Coast region. Branches Ending at the mouth of Cousins Inlet, which is the harbour for the abandoned town of Ocean Falls, the fjord's name changes to Fisher Channel down the west side of King Island. Below Fisher Channel's length the fjord merges with Burke Channel, which is a arm of the Dean/Fisher Channel on the east side of King Island, the name of the fjord changes to Fitz Hugh Sound, which is considerably wider than the upper part of the fjord at about in width and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulf
A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of salt water that are enclosed by the coastline. Many gulfs are major shipping areas, such as the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Finland, and Gulf of Aden. See also * References External links * {{Geography-stub Gulfs, Bodies of water Coastal and oceanic landforms Coastal geography Oceanographical terminology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cove
A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves. Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered bay. Geomorphology describes coves as precipitously walled and rounded cirque-like openings like a valley extending into or down a mountainside, or in a hollow or nook of a cliff or steep mountainside. A cove can also refer to a corner, nook, or cranny, either in a river, road, or wall, especially where the wall meets the floor. Formation Coves are formed by differential erosion, which occurs when softer rocks are worn away faster than the harder rocks surrounding them. These rocks further erode to form a circular bay with a narrow entrance, called a ''cove''. Another way is that waves can transport rocks and sediment towards cliffs or rock faces, whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Channel
Douglas Channel is one of the principal inlets (or fjords) of the British Columbia Coast, into which the Kitimat River flows. The channel was named in honour of Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. The official length, from the head of Kitimat Arm and the aluminum smelter town of Kitimat to Wright Sound (on the Inside Passage ferry route), is . The full length of the fjord's waterways includes waters between Kitimat and the open waters of the Hecate Strait, outside of the coastal archipelago, stretching for another , reaching in-total. Geography A major side-inlet, the Gardner Canal, is in length, accessible from the Kitimat Arm of the Douglas Channel via Devastation Channel (), on the east side of Hawkesbury Island. South of Hawkesbury is Verney Passage (), which has a side-channel called Ursula Passage (). Total length of the fjord waterway dominated by Douglas Channel is therefore (not counting smaller side-inlets) roughly , con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Estuary
An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone. Estuaries are subject both to marine influences such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water, and to fluvial influences such as flows of freshwater and sediment. The mixing of seawater and freshwater provides high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea level began to rise about 10,000–12,000 years ago. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns. They can have many different names, such as ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
