Liman (landform)

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Landsat satellite photo of limans along the Black Sea coast

Liman forming the Dnieper and Southern Bug river estuaries

Dniester Liman forming the Dniester river estuary

Liman is a name for a lake or estuary formed at the mouth of a river where flow is blocked by a bar of sediments. Liman can be maritime (the bar being created by the current of a sea) or fluvial (the bar being created by the flow of a bigger river at the confluence).

The name is used for such features found along the western and northern coast of the Black Sea, as well as along the lowest part of the Danube. Examples of limans include Lake Varna in Bulgaria, Lake Razelm in Romania and the Dniester Liman in the Ukraine. It has also been used in other places by Russian geographers, for example the Anadyrskiy Liman (Анадырский лимáн), in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in far northeastern Siberia.

[edit] Etymology

The word was borrowed in English from Russian лиман (liman). However, the word came from the Medieval Greek λιμένας meaning bay or port. The word was spread by Turks when they occupied the western and northern shore of the Black Sea, with the meaning of harbour and port. In Bulgarian, Romanian, Ukrainian and Russian the word defined the particular lake, Dniester Liman.^[1]