Bay

A is a recessed, al body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an, a , or even another bay. A large bay is usually called a, , , or. A is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A is a particularly steep bay shaped by glacial activity.

A bay can be the of a river, such as the, an estuary of the. Bays may also be nested within each other; for example, is an arm of  in. Some large bays, such as the and Hudson Bay, have varied.

The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of s and blocks s. Bays may have as wide a variety of shoreline characteristics as other shorelines. In some cases, bays have, which “are usually characterized by a steep upper foreshore with a broad, flat fronting terrace”. Bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided safe places for. Later they were important in the development of sea trade as the safe they provide encouraged their selection as s.

Definition
The (UNCLOS) defines a bay as a well-marked indentation in the coastline, whose penetration is in such proportion to the width of its mouth as to contain land-locked waters and constitute more than a mere curvature of the coast. An indentation however shall not be regarded as a bay unless its area is as large as (or larger than) that of the whose  is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation — otherwise it would be referred to as a.

Formation
There are various ways in which bays can form. The largest bays have developed through. As the super-continent broke up along curved and indented fault lines, the continents moved apart and left large bays; these include the, the , and the , which is the world’s largest bay.

Bays also form through coastal by rivers and s. A bay formed by a glacier is a. s are created by rivers and are characterized by more gradual slopes. Deposits of softer rocks erode more rapidly, forming bays, while harder rocks erode less quickly, leaving s.

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