A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform , such as reefs , barrier islands , barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses . Lagoons are commonly divided into coastal lagoons (or barrier lagoons ) and atoll lagoons . They have also been identified as occurring on mixed-sand and gravel coastlines. There is an overlap between bodies of water classified as coastal lagoons and bodies of water classified as estuaries . Lagoons are common coastal features around many parts of the world.
27-520: Garabogazköl (also spelled Kara-Bogaz-Gol ; "Black Strait Lake"), or Garabogazköl Aylagy ("Black Strait Lake Bay"), is a shallow, highly saline lagoon off the Caspian Sea in northwestern Turkmenistan . The lagoon has a variable surface area typically about 18,000 km (6,900 sq mi). It is very shallow, with an average depth of 10 meters. It is separated from the Caspian Sea by
54-539: A lake is hu ( 湖 ), and a lagoon is xihu ( 潟湖 ). In the French Mediterranean several lagoons are called étang ("lake"). Contrariwise, several other languages have specific words for such bodies of water. In Spanish, coastal lagoons generically are laguna costera , but those on the Mediterranean coast are specifically called albufera . In Russian and Ukrainian, those on
81-501: A larger body of water by a shallow or exposed shoal , coral reef , or similar feature. Some authorities include fresh water bodies in the definition of "lagoon", while others explicitly restrict "lagoon" to bodies of water with some degree of salinity . The distinction between "lagoon" and "estuary" also varies between authorities. Richard A. Davis Jr. restricts "lagoon" to bodies of water with little or no fresh water inflow, and little or no tidal flow, and calls any bay that receives
108-416: A narrow, rocky ridge having a very narrow opening through which the Caspian Sea waters flow into it. There is likely a subterranean highly saline water flow when there is less evaporation in winter. The lagoon's volume fluctuates seasonally, accentuated by its salt evaporation ponds and seasonally dry salt pans . The city of Garabogaz lies nearby, about 50 km (31 mi) north of the channel between
135-422: A regular flow of fresh water an "estuary". Davis does state that the terms "lagoon" and "estuary" are "often loosely applied, even in scientific literature". Timothy M. Kusky characterizes lagoons as normally being elongated parallel to the coast, while estuaries are usually drowned river valleys, elongated perpendicular to the coast. Coastal lagoons are classified as inland bodies of water. When used within
162-458: Is actually the third-largest lake by area in the country. The brackish water lagoon may be thus explicitly identified as a "coastal lagoon" ( laguna costera ). In Portuguese, a similar usage is found: lagoa may be a body of shallow seawater, or a small freshwater lake not linked to the sea. Lagoon is derived from the Italian laguna , which refers to the waters around Venice ,
189-502: Is also noted for its duck and goose hunting. 36°17′01″N 75°52′14″W / 36.28361°N 75.87056°W / 36.28361; -75.87056 This article about a location in Currituck County , North Carolina is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This City of Virginia Beach, Virginia state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about
216-892: Is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Currituck Banks Peninsula (formerly Bodie Island ), part of the Outer Banks . On the northeast, it extends to Back Bay in northeast Virginia Beach, Virginia . A fork on the northwest leads to the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal , which is a part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that connects the sound to Hampton Roads and the Chesapeake Bay . It ranges from 1 to 3 feet deep. Although several inlets connected it directly to
243-547: Is the major force that moves water. Currituck County 's Mackay Island and Currituck National Wildlife Refuge as well as Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge and False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach border the sound and are winter habitats on the Atlantic Flyway . Many watersports activities occur in the sound, including parasailing , sea kayaking , and jet skiing . An area of barrier beaches , it
270-626: The Black Sea are liman ( лиман ), while the generic word is laguna ( Лагуна ). Similarly, in the Baltic , Danish has the specific Nor [ da ] , and German the specifics Bodden and Haff , as well as generic terms derived from laguna . In Poland these lagoons are called zalew ("bay"), in Lithuania marios ("lagoon, reservoir"). In Jutland several lagoons are known as fjord . In New Zealand
297-523: The Māori word hapua refers to a coastal lagoon formed at the mouth of a braided river where there are mixed sand and gravel beaches, while waituna , an ephemeral coastal waterbody, is neither a true lagoon, lake nor estuary. Some languages differentiate between coastal and atoll lagoons. In French, lagon [ fr ] refers specifically to an atoll lagoon, while coastal lagoons are described as étang [ fr ] ,
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#1732783712912324-610: The Venetian Lagoon . Laguna is attested in English by at least 1612, and had been Anglicized to "lagune" by 1673. In 1697 William Dampier referred to a "Lagune or Lake of Salt water" on the coast of Mexico. Captain James Cook described an island "of Oval form with a Lagoon in the middle" in 1769. Atoll lagoons form as coral reefs grow upwards while the islands that the reefs surround subside, until eventually only
351-458: The Wadden Sea , have strong tidal currents and mixing. Coastal lagoons tend to accumulate sediments from inflowing rivers, from runoff from the shores of the lagoon, and from sediment carried into the lagoon through inlets by the tide. Large quantities of sediment may be occasionally be deposited in a lagoon when storm waves overwash barrier islands. Mangroves and marsh plants can facilitate
378-752: The Atlantic at one time or another, they have all since closed and there is now no direct access to the Ocean from the Sound. Thus contemporary salinity levels are very low, usually around 2-3 ‰ at the north end and 4-5‰ at the sound. Currently, the only access to the ocean is through the Albemarle Sound , which joins the Currituck to the South, meaning that the sound has no lunar or solar tides. Instead, wind
405-402: The accumulation of sediment in a lagoon. Benthic organisms may stabilize or destabilize sediments. Currituck Sound Currituck Sound ( / ˈ k ʊr ɪ t ʌ k / ) is a lagoon located in northeastern part of North Carolina and extreme southeastern Virginia . 36 miles (58 km) long north-south and 8 miles (13 km) at its widest, this shallow, island-filled sound
432-677: The barrier was removed by order of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov , allowing Caspian water to refill the lagoon. The lagoon is the subject of Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky 's 1932 book Kara-Bugaz . In it, he praises the setting up of the local salt industry by the Soviet government in the 1930s. In 1935, film director Aleksandr Razumny made a film Kara-bugaz ( Кара-Бугаз ) based on Paustovsky's Kara-Bugaz , with music by Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov . Lagoon Lagoons are shallow, often elongated bodies of water separated from
459-626: The context of a distinctive portion of coral reef ecosystems, the term "lagoon" is synonymous with the term "back reef" or "backreef", which is more commonly used by coral reef scientists to refer to the same area. Many lagoons do not include "lagoon" in their common names. Currituck , Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds in North Carolina , Great South Bay between Long Island and the barrier beaches of Fire Island in New York , Isle of Wight Bay , which separates Ocean City, Maryland from
486-597: The generic word for a still lake or pond. In Vietnamese, Đầm san hô refers to an atoll lagoon, whilst Đầm phá is coastal. In Latin America, the term laguna in Spanish, which lagoon translates to, may be used for a small fresh water lake in a similar way a creek is considered a small river. However, sometimes it is popularly used to describe a full-sized lake , such as Laguna Catemaco in Mexico, which
513-630: The lagoon. Lagoons with little or no interchange with the open ocean, little or no inflow of fresh water, and high evaporation rates, such as Lake St. Lucia , in South Africa , may become highly saline. Lagoons with no connection to the open ocean and significant inflow of fresh water, such as the Lake Worth Lagoon in Florida in the middle of the 19th century, may be entirely fresh. On the other hand, lagoons with many wide inlets, such as
540-556: The land along the coast). Coastal lagoons do not form along steep or rocky coasts, or if the range of tides is more than 4 metres (13 ft). Due to the gentle slope of the coast, coastal lagoons are shallow. A relative drop in sea level may leave a lagoon largely dry, while a rise in sea level may let the sea breach or destroy barrier islands, and leave reefs too deep underwater to protect the lagoon. Coastal lagoons are young and dynamic, and may be short-lived in geological terms. Coastal lagoons are common, occurring along nearly 15 percent of
567-444: The local population since the 1920s, but in the 1930s manual collection stopped and the industry shifted northwest to its present center near Garabogaz . From the 1950s onward, groundwater was pumped from levels lower than the bay itself, yielding more valuable types of salts. In 1963, construction began at Garabogaz on a modern plant for increased production of salt products year round, independent of natural evaporation. Construction of
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#1732783712912594-532: The main Caspian basin and the Garabogazköl lagoon. The water body lends its name to the nearby city of Garabogaz . The name was originally applied to the narrow strait which connects the gulf to the Caspian Sea. Because the water in the strait, termed a "throat" ( Turkmen : bogaz ), was darker than the water on either side, it was termed "dark" or "black" ( Turkmen : gara ), hence garabogaz . Over time
621-461: The name was applied to the gulf itself and ultimately to the city. The salinity of the lagoon is on average about 35%, compared to 1.2% in the Caspian Sea and between 3% and 4% in oceans worldwide. Due to the exceptionally high salinity, comparable to the Dead Sea , it has little to no marine vegetation. Large evaporite deposits consisting mostly of salt on the south shore have been harvested by
648-425: The plant was completed in 1973. In March 1980, workers blocked the Caspian link, due to concerns that evaporation was accelerating a fall in Caspian Sea. The resulting "salt bowl" caused widespread problems of blowing salt, reportedly poisoning the soil and causing health problems for hundreds of kilometers downwind to the east. In 1984 the lake became completely dry. In June 1992, when Caspian Sea levels rose again,
675-407: The reefs remain above sea level. Unlike the lagoons that form shoreward of fringing reefs, atoll lagoons often contain some deep (>20 m (66 ft)) portions. Coastal lagoons form along gently sloping coasts where barrier islands or reefs can develop offshore, and the sea-level is rising relative to the land along the shore (either because of an intrinsic rise in sea-level, or subsidence of
702-627: The rest of Worcester County, Maryland , Banana River in Florida , US, Lake Illawarra in New South Wales , Australia, Montrose Basin in Scotland , and Broad Water in Wales have all been classified as lagoons, despite their names. In England, The Fleet at Chesil Beach has also been described as a lagoon. In some languages the word for a lagoon is simply a type of lake: In Chinese
729-522: The world's shorelines. In the United States, lagoons are found along more than 75 percent of the Eastern and Gulf Coasts . Coastal lagoons can be classified as leaky, restricted, or choked. Coastal lagoons are usually connected to the open ocean by inlets between barrier islands. The number and size of the inlets, precipitation, evaporation, and inflow of fresh water all affect the nature of
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