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. Large headlands may also be called peninsulas, long, narrow and high headlands promontories. When headlands dramatically affect the ocean currents they are often called capes. A gulf generally occupies an area larger than a bay and may itself contains one or more bays.
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Geology and geography
Headlands and bays are usually found together on the same stretch of coastline. Headlands and bays form on discordant 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.
Sometimes bays 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.
"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 headlands
- Europe
- Cabo da Roca in Portugal
- Cape Arkona in Germany
- Cape Finisterre in Spain
- North Cape in Norway
- Cape Wrath in Scotland
- Asia
- Kanyakumari or Cape Comorin in Tamil Nadu, India
- Cape Engaño on the Philippines
- Indira Point in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India
- Cape Dezhnev in Russia
- North American, Central America and the Caribbean
List of some well-known bays
- Africa
- Gulf of Guinea
- Gulf of Sidra - coast of Tunisia and Libya
- 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)
- Bohai Gulf (China)
- 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 the Baja California peninsula and the Mexican mainland.
- Gulf of Mexico between Mexico and the United States
- Chesapeake Bay mostly in Maryland
- Monterey Bay in California
- San Francisco Bay in California
- Oceania
- Great Australian Bight off the south coast of Australia
- Botany Bay, near Sydney, Australia
- Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia
- Bay of Islands, New Zealand
- Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
- Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand
- Hawke Bay, New Zealand
- North Taranaki Bight, New Zealand
- Port Phillip Bay, Australia
- South Taranaki Bight, New Zealand
- Tasman Bay, New Zealand
A couple of non-gulfs (actually straits) are:
External links
- GeoResources - diagrams of headland and bay formation (http://www.georesources.co.uk/leld.htm)da:Bugt (geografi)
de:Golf (Meer) it:Golfo ja:湾 pl:Zatoka pt:Baía ro:Golf
Categories: Landforms | Bays | Headlands