Bight (geography)

Great Australian Bight

In geography, bight has two meanings. A bight can be simply a bend or curve in any geographical feature,^[1] usually a bend or curve in the line between land and water.

Alternatively, the term can refer to a large (and often only slightly receding) bay. It is distinguished from a sound by being shallower. Traditionally explorers defined a bight as a bay that could be sailed out of on a single tack in a square-rigged sailing vessel, regardless of the direction of the wind (typically meaning the apex of the bight is less than 25 degrees from the edges).

Prominent bights

• Great Australian Bight
• Great Magnetic Bight
• Bay of Campeche
• Bight of Benin
• Bight of Bonny or Bight of Biafra
• Georgia Bight or South Atlantic Bight
• German Bight or Heligoland Bight
• Mecklenburg Bight (also called Mecklenburg Bay)
• Mid-Atlantic Bight
• New York Bight
• North Taranaki Bight
• Santa Monica Bay
• South Taranaki Bight
• Southern Bight
• Southern California Bight
• McKenzie Bight
• Trinity Bight
• Robson Bight
• Portland Bight (Jamaica)

References

v t e Coastal geography Landforms Anchialine pool Archipelago Atoll Avulsion Ayre Barrier island Bay Baymouth bar Bight Brackish marsh Cape Channel Cliff Cliff-top dune Cliffed coast Coast Coastal plain Coastal waterfall Continental margin Continental shelf Coral reef Cove Dune Estuary Firth Fjard Fjord Flat coast Freshwater marsh Fundus Gat Geo Graded shoreline Gulf Headland Inlet Intertidal wetland Island Islet Isthmus Lagoon Machair Marine terrace Mega delta Mouth bar Mudflat Natural arch Peninsula Raised shoreline Reef Regressive delta Ria River delta Rocky shore Salt marsh Shoal Shore Sound Stack Steep coast Strait Strand plain Submarine canyon Tidal island Tidal marsh Tide pool Tied island Tombolo Windwatt more ... Beaches Beach cusps Beach evolution Beach morphodynamics Beach ridge Beachrock Modern recession of beaches Pocket beach Raised beach Shingle beach Storm beach Wash margin Processes Blowhole Coastal biogeomorphology Coastal erosion Concordant coastline Current Cuspate foreland Discordant coastline Emergent coastline Feeder bluff Fetch Headlands and bays Large-scale coastal behaviour Longshore drift Marine regression Marine transgression Rip current Sea cave Sea foam Shoal Spit Submergent coastline Surf break Surf zone Surge channel Swash Volcanic arc Wave-cut platform Wave shoaling Wind wave Wrack zone Management Accretion Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Submersion Related Bulkhead line Coastline length Intertidal zone Littoral zone Grain size boulder cobble clay granule pebble sand shingle silt Physical oceanography Region of freshwater influence more ...