Headlands and bays
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A Headland is an area of land adjacent to water on three sides. A bay is the reverse, an area of water bordering land on three sides. Headlands and bays are usually, but not always, found together on the same stretch of coastline. Headlands and bays form on concordant coastlines, where bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form where weak (less resistant) rocks (such as sands and clays) are eroded, leaving bands of stronger (more resistant) rocks (such as chalk, limestone, granite) forming a headland, or peninsula. Wave refraction occurs on headlands concentrating wave energy on them so many other landforms, such as caves, natural archs and stacks, form on headlands. Wave refraction disperses wave energy through the bay, and along with the sheltering effect of the headlands this protects bays from storms. This effect means that the waves reaching the shore in a bay are usually constructive waves, and because of this most bays feature a beach. A bay may be only metres across, or it could be hundreds of kilometres across.
Headlands and bays may also form in lakes.
Sometimes bays may also form where movements of the earth's crust (tectonics) bring areas of land together, or move them apart. Usually these bays are referred to as seas or gulfs and not bays.
Headlands, particularly large headlands, may also be called peninsulas, or where they dramatically affect the ocean currents they are called capes.
"Capes and bays geography" is a derogatory term for the approach to teaching geography that requires students to rote learn the names of large number of geographical features rather than taking a more theoretically driven approach.
List of some well-known bays
- Europe - Baltic Sea
- Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden and Finland
- Gulf of Finland between Finland and Estonia
- Bay of Gdansk between Poland and Kaliningrad Oblast
- Bay of Pomerania, between Poland and Germany
- Bay of Szczecin, between Poland and Germany
- Bay of Greifswald in Germany
- Bay of Mecklenburg, between Germany and Denmark
- Bay of Lubeck, in Germany
- Bay of Kiel, between Germany and Denmark
- Riddarfjärden in Stockholm, Sweden
- Asia
- Bay of Bengal, near Bengal (India/Bangladesh)
- Gulf of Cambay(Khambhat), Gujarat (India)
- Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat (India)
- Manila Bay on Luzon island in the Philippines
- Persian Gulf between Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran
- Red Sea
- Subic Bay on Luzon island in the Philippines, the site of a former US Navy base
- North American, Central America and the Caribbean
- Bay of Pigs on Cuba
- Hudson Bay, between the Canadian provinces and territories of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Nunavut
- James Bay, between Ontario and Quebec, opens to Hudson Bay to the north
- Georgian Bay on Lake Huron
- Gulf of California between Baja California and the Mexican mainland.
- Gulf of Mexico between Mexico and the United States
- Monterey Bay in California
- San Francisco Bay in California
- Australasia
- Great Australian Bight off the south coast of Australia
- Botany Bay, near Sydney, Australia
- Bay of Islands, New Zealand
- Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
- Hawke Bay, New Zealand
A couple of non-gulfs (actually straits) are:
External links
da:Bugt (geografi) de:Golf (Meer) it:Golfo ja:湾 ro:Golf
