A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean , a lake , or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf , sea , sound , or bight . A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action. The term embayment is also used for related features , such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.
11-459: Little Neck Bay is an embayment in western Long Island , New York , off Long Island Sound . Little Neck Bay forms the western boundary of the Great Neck Peninsula , the eastern boundary of which is Manhasset Bay . The political boundary between Nassau County and the borough of Queens runs through the bay, bordering the neighborhood of Douglaston–Little Neck . At the entrance to
22-414: A bight ( / b aɪ t / ) is a concave bend or curvature in a coastline , river or other geographical feature, or it may refer to a very open bay formed by such a feature. Such bays are typically broad, open, shallow and only slightly recessed. Bights are distinguished from sounds , in that sounds are much deeper. Traditionally, explorers defined a bight as a bay that could be sailed out of on
33-453: A bay unless its area is as large as (or larger than) that of the semi-circle whose diameter is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation — otherwise it would be referred to as a bight . There are various ways in which bays can form. The largest bays have developed through plate tectonics . As the super-continent Pangaea broke up along curved and indented fault lines, the continents moved apart and left large bays; these include
44-577: A single tack in a square-rigged sailing vessel, regardless of the direction of the wind (typically meaning the apex of the bight is less than 25 degrees from the edges). According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , an indentation with an area as large as (or larger than) that of the semi-circle whose diameter is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation, can be regarded as
55-466: A tribe known as the Matinecock . However, that view has been challenged. Later, from the 1860s through the 1890s, small hard clams (quahogs) from Little Neck Bay were served in the best restaurants of New York and several European capitals. Eventually, the term "littleneck" or "littleneck clam" came to be used as a size category for all hard clams, regardless of origin. Saddle-rock oysters are also found in
66-517: Is located on the eastern side of the bay about half-way in. The bay is shallower than Manhasset Bay, being only 12 feet (3.7 m) deep at the entrance, with most of the back bay being less than 6 feet (1.8 m) deep. Alley Pond Park and Cross Island Parkway are on the southern and southwestern shore, and Alley Creek drains into the bay. Traditionally, the Algonquin who lived around Little Neck Bay when Europeans came were considered to be from
77-576: The Bay of Bengal and Hudson Bay, have varied marine geology . The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds and blocks waves . Bays may have as wide a variety of shoreline characteristics as other shorelines. In some cases, bays have beaches , 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 easy access to marine resources like fisheries . Later they were important in
88-498: The Gulf of Guinea , the Gulf of Mexico , and the Bay of Bengal , which is the world's largest bay. Bays also form through coastal erosion by rivers and glaciers . A bay formed by a glacier is a fjord . Rias are created by rivers and are characterised by more gradual slopes. Deposits of softer rocks erode more rapidly, forming bays, while harder rocks erode less quickly, leaving headlands . Bight (geography) In geography ,
99-554: The bay, on the western point – known as Willets Point – is Fort Totten , which was built to protect the entrance to the tidal strait known as the East River . At the eastern side of the entrance is Elm Point (the end of Steamboat Road in Kings Point ). The bay is about a mile wide at the entrance and extends back just under two miles. Originally, on the western and southern sides of the bay there were extensive salt marshes. Saddle Rock
110-558: The bay. The bay was closed to harvesting in 1909 due to pollution. 40°47′35″N 73°45′47″W / 40.793°N 73.763°W / 40.793; -73.763 Bay A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay , an estuary of the Susquehanna River . Bays may also be nested within each other; for example, James Bay is an arm of Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada . Some large bays, such as
121-429: The development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports . The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 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
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