What are some of the main physical features of the Chesapeake Bay?

Asked by: Sirious Rogers

At its widest point, just south of the mouth of the Potomac River, it is 30 miles (50 km) wide. The Bay and its tributaries contain an astounding 11,684 miles (18,804 km) of shoreline. Much of the Bay is quite shallow; more than 24 percent of the Bay is less than 6 feet (2 m) deep. The average depth is 21 feet (7 m).

What are the three physical characteristics of the water in the Chesapeake Bay?

Salinity, temperature and circulation are three important physical characteristics of water in the Chesapeake Bay. Each of these physical characteristics affects and is affected by the others.

What are 3 facts about the Chesapeake Bay?

More than 500,000 Canada geese winter in and near the Bay. The Bay produces about 500 million pounds of seafood per year. Nearly 80,000 acres of underwater grasses grow in the shallows of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Young and molting blue crabs rely on underwater grass beds for protection from predators.

What are 5 facts about the Chesapeake Bay?

10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Chesapeake Bay

• The Bay holds about 18 trillion gallons of water. …
• Only about half of the water in the Bay comes from the ocean. …
• Roughly 51 billion gallons of water enter the Bay each day from the 100,000 streams, creeks, and rivers that feed it.

Is Chesapeake Bay freshwater?

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary—a partially enclosed body of water where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. About half of the water in the Bay comes from salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. The other half drains into the Bay from its enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed.

What is the Chesapeake Bay known for?

The Chesapeake Bay has the largest land-to-water ratio (14:1) of any coastal water body in the world. More than 100,000 streams and rivers thread through the watershed and eventually flow into the Bay. Everyone within the Chesapeake Bay watershed is just minutes from one of the streams or rivers.

What are the most important physical features of Maryland?

The Appalachian Mountains
The Blue Ridge Mountains. Deep Creek Lake, Maryland’s largest lake. Backbone Mountain, Maryland’s highest point of land. Mountains, valleys, lakes and streams.

Are there sharks in the Chesapeake Bay?

The most common shark found in the Chesapeake is the sandbar shark. The sandbar shark can be found in the Atlantic Ocean from Massachusetts all the way to southern Brazil, and is a seasonal visitor to the Chesapeake Bay in the summer and fall.

Is Chesapeake Bay a real place?

Unfortunately, Chesapeake Shores is not a real town, but the Chesapeake Bay is a real place in the United States where tourists visit every year. Hallmark’s Chesapeake Shores television show is based on a series of novels of the same name by author Sherryl Woods.

Is the Chesapeake Bay man made?

About 35.5 million years ago an exploding meteor collided with Earth and formed a massive crater. Because rivers flow along the path of least resistance, the depression created by the crater caused river valleys to converge, setting the stage for the formation of the Chesapeake Bay.

How salty is sea water?

about 35 parts per thousand

The concentration of salt in seawater (its salinity) is about 35 parts per thousand; in other words, about 3.5% of the weight of seawater comes from the dissolved salts. In a cubic mile of seawater, the weight of the salt (as sodium chloride) would be about 120 million tons.

Is a Bay the ocean?

Oceans and bays are large water bodies. Oceans, as every one knows, are the largest water bodies in the globe. A bay is a water body that is surrounded or demarcated by land. As a bay is big and comes in with almost the same characteristics as that of the Ocean, it is difficult to make a difference between the two.

How many oceans are there?

Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries – including the United States – now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known. The Southern Ocean is the ‘newest’ named ocean.

What does bay look like?

A bay is a body of water partially surrounded by land. A bay is usually smaller and less enclosed than a gulf. The mouth of the bay, where meets the ocean or lake, is typically wider than that of a gulf.