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":
... 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 ...
... 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 Rocky ...
... 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 ... Monte 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 Circeo, on the coast between ...
... The broken line measuring the coast does not extend in one direction nor does it represent an area, but is intermediate ... on this topic, see How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension ...
... Spanish 18th Pacific Northwest George Vancouver British 18th Pacific coast of North America Pierre Gaultier de Varennes French Canadian 18th western Canada Gonçalo Velho ...
Famous quotes containing the word coast:
“The Boston papers had never told me that there were seals in the harbor. I had always associated these with the Esquimaux and other outlandish people. Yet from the parlor windows all along the coast you may see families of them sporting on the flats. They were as strange to me as the merman would be. Ladies who never walk in the woods, sail over the sea. To go to sea! Why, it is to have the experience of Noah,—to realize the deluge. Every vessel is an ark.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“And ladies with their nails prepared for tea
And sunken barques that coast the shores of hell
And old men vacant of propriety
Have faintly rung a next-door neighbor’s bell.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)