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.
11-739: The Stettin Bay , also spelled as Stetin Bay , is a bay in the Bismarck Sea , within the Pacific Ocean , on the north coast of the island of New Britain . It is located in the Kimbe Bay , between the Willaumez Peninsula to the east, and Hoskins Peninsula to the west, within the West New Britain Province , Papua New Guinea . The Stettin Bay , also spelled as Stetin Bay , is named after
22-545: 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 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
33-401: 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 , a bight ( / b aɪ t / ) is a concave bend or curvature in a coastline , river or other geographical feature, or it may refer to
44-584: A large part of the access to the bay. Among them are Grabo Reef, Reeson Reef, Roberts Reef, Mowen Reef, and Fish Reef. Northwest of the bay are the islands of Garua Island , Schaumann Island , and Restorff Island . On the coast of the Stettin Bay is located the town of Kimbe , the capital of West New Britain Province. Bay A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay , an estuary of
55-496: 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 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
66-400: 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 a single tack in a square-rigged sailing vessel, regardless of the direction of the wind (typically meaning the apex of
77-437: 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 semi-circle whose diameter is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation — otherwise it would be referred to as
88-677: The German-language name of the city of Szczecin , Poland , which is Stettin . It was named as such in the late 19th century, while the island of New Britain , then known as New Pomerania ( German : Neupommern ), was part of the German New Guinea , a colony of the German Empire . At the time Szczecin was the capital of the Province of Pomerania in Germany. During the colonial era, the bay
99-537: 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 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
110-552: 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 a bay not merely a bight. The term is derived from Old English byht ("bend, angle, corner; bay, bight") with German Bucht and Danish bugt as cognates , both meaning " bay ". Bight
121-492: Was known in German as Stettinerbucht ( Stettin Bay ). The Stettin Bay is a bay in the Bismarck Sea , within the Pacific Ocean , on the north coats of the island of New Britain . It is located in the Kimbe Bay , between the Willaumez Peninsula to the east, and Hoskins Peninsula to the west, within the West New Britain Province , Papua New Guinea . The bay is around 35 km wide and about 25 km deep. Upstream coral reefs block
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