A
bay is a dent the coast line. Some bays are called estuaries, fiords
or rias.
Bays
are formed by erosion. The soft rock is washed
away by the movement of the waves and the harder rock that is left forms
a headland. The tiny bits of worn away rock,
which forms sand, is left behind on the shore of the bay and that builds
up the beach.
An
estuary is the area where the sea has entered a river valley and there
are changes in the saltiness of the water caused by tides. The Hawkesbury
river drowned a river valley when it formed Broken Bay which is a good
example of an estuary.
Fiords
are narrow, deep bays that sometimes go up to 160km into the land.
They are formed when the sea level changes and the ocean floods a valley
where a glacier used to be. The nearest fiords
to us are in Southern New Zealand.
Click
to see our model of a bay and headland.
