Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs. Both the terms coast and coastal are often used to describe a geographic location or region; for example, New Zealand's West Coast, or the East and West Coasts of the United States.
A pelagic coast refers to a coast which fronts the open ocean, as opposed to a more sheltered coast in a gulf or bay. A shore, on the other hand, can refer to parts of the land which adjoin any large body of water, including oceans (sea shore) and lakes (lake shore). Similarly, the somewhat related term "bank" refers to the land alongside or sloping down to a river (riverbank) or to a body of water smaller than a lake. "Bank" is also used in some parts of the world to refer to an artificial ridge of earth intended to retain the water of a river or pond. In other places this may be called a levee.
While many scientific experts might agree on a common definition of the term "coast", the delineation of the extents of a coast differ according to jurisdiction, with many scientific and government authorities in various countries differing for economic and social policy reasons.
Read more about Coast: Formation, Environmental Importance, Types of Coast, Coastal Landforms, Coastal Processes
Other articles related to "coast":
... Hanno the Navigator Carthaginian 6th BC west African coast Hannu ancient Egyptian (c. 20th Arctic Dirk Hartog Dutch 17th western Australian coast Ahmed Pasha Hassanein Egyptian 20th Oweinat and the Sahara Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden American 19th ...
... The entire coast of Lazio, on which the mountain and the marsh are located, was a chain of barrier islands that was formed on a horst, made part of the mainland ... Circeo, as it is sometimes also called in Italian, is located on the southwest coast of Italy, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south/southeast of Rome, near San Felice ...
... to ship their own account to conquer the English Channel, the Mediterranean, the African-Atlantic coast into the Caribbean to ... The booty he was liquidated on the coast of Ireland, later in Sale and the Barbary Coast ...
... Cayetano Valdés Spanish 18th Pacific Northwest George Vancouver British 18th Pacific coast of North America Pierre Gaultier de Varennes French Canadian 18th ...
... The broken line measuring the coast does not extend in one direction nor does it represent an area, but is intermediate ... For more details on this topic, see How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension ...
Famous quotes containing the word coast:
“Frequently also some fair-weather finery ripped off a vessel by a storm near the coast was nailed up against an outhouse. I saw fastened to a shed near the lighthouse a long new sign with the words “ANGLO SAXON” on it in large gilt letters, as if it were a useless part which the ship could afford to lose, or which the sailors had discharged at the same time with the pilot. But it interested somewhat as if it had been a part of the Argo, clipped off in passing through the Symplegades.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What do we want with this vast and worthless area, of this region of savages and wild beasts, of deserts, of shifting sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of cactus and prairie dogs; to what use could we ever hope to put these great deserts, or those endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever hope to do with the western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rockbound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor in it?”
—For the State of Kansas, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)