Talk:Headlands and bays

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This page lists San Francisco Bay (SFB) as being a well-known bay.

However, the entry for San Francisco Bay says that the SFB is an estuary.

Neither, this page nor the entry for estuaries mention a relationship between bays and estuaries (is a bay an estuary? Is an estuary a bay?)

I'm a bit confused as to whether SFB formally is a bay or not. According to this entry, a bay should have land on three sides, whereas SFB has land on almost all sides, and would therefore despite its name seem to be an estuary and not a bay, and should therefore maybe not be listed here as a well-known bay.

I think it qualifies as a bay, it's just on a concordant coastline rather than a discordant coastline, so the two headlands are formed by the same band of rock (broken by a narrow mouth) rather than two parallel bands of rock. It also fits the definition of cove (a bay with a narrower mouth than the widest point of the bay). Finally, in many cases the boundary between an estuary and a bay can be ambiguous, and may be that SF bay can be described as both. So, in conclusion, I don't know ;) Joe D (t) 18:04, 15 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Definition of gulf

Gulf redirects here but is not explicitly defined vis-a-vis bay. A-giau 13:16, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Split article?

I gotta say, I'm not sure I see the point of having this as a unified article. I'd rather see a separate article on minor bodies of saline water (bays, gulfs, seas, etc) and another on terra projections (peninsulas, headlands, etc). This just seems confusing to me, having these combined. The statement that where one is found so too is the other is disproven on the map as often as it is proved. Unschool 23:12, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

I mean, go ahead and split 'em, if you want to. AJD 14:46, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
Before i saw the above posting, I was thinking "split". Let's do it. Do we want to involve Discordant coastline or leave that one alone? Cuvette 02:23, 20 June 2007 (UTC)

I think that Headlands and Bays should be separated, as they are two distinctly different things. However, on the subject of Bays, I also suggest we get the definition a bit more accurate. I don't know where this "surrounded on three sides" came from but the Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th Ed. defines a bay as "part of the sea filling a wide-mouthed opening of land" and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 1992 Ed. defines a bay as "an indentation of the sea into the land with a wide opening". Fairly straightforward. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.175.211.26 (talk) 06:08, 11 November 2007 (UTC)