Bay

The bay at Castletown, Isle of Man.

A bay is a large body of water in the land next to a sea or lake between two headlands. The waves coming to the shore in a bay are usually constructive waves, and because of this, many of them have a beach. A bay may be metres across, or it could be hundreds of kilometres across. A large bay is often called a gulf, sound, or bight. A bay often contains beaches.

Bays form where weak rocks, such as sands and clays, are eroded, leaving bands of stronger rocks, such as chalk, limestone, or granite, forming a headland, or peninsula. Bays are formed when there are parallel sections of softer and harder rock perpendicular to the coast.

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of BAY". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on March 21, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ "bay". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved March 21, 2017.