Bay

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.^[1][2][3] 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.^[4] The term embayment is also used for related features, such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.

A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay, an estuary of the Susquehanna River.^[2] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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".^[5] Bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided easy access to marine resources like fisheries.^[6] Later they were important in the development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports.^[7]