How is the bay different from the strait? At first glance, the difference is visible in the terms themselves. The strait should connect two or more water bodies, separated by a relatively narrow part of the land. The bay, in theory, should not have access to another water area. Is it really? Is this the only difference between the Strait of Davis and the nearby Cumberland Bay? It makes sense to figure it out.
Bays
Depending on the nature of the location, several types are distinguished: harbors and bays, lips and fjords, estuaries, lagoons and estuaries. It should be noted that the bays can belong to different water areas: oceans, rivers, seas or lakes. All these objects seem to crash into the mainland and have a different origin. Some are formed by tides and currents, while others arose during the formation of continents: the movement of tectonic plates, rock formation, and volcanic activity.
Depending on the topography, climatic conditions, tides, currents of feeding rivers, the bays can have different characteristics. Their water regime, depth, current velocity, and water composition can substantially differ. The bays are sometimes separated from the main body of water by alluvial spits and piles of permanent or temporary nature.
The straits
These objects are conditionally distinguished from the “body” of the seas and oceans. A strait is a relatively narrow part of a body of water that separates land: two mainlands or one part of it and an adjacent island. Another feature - the strait connects neighboring seas or oceans.
If we compare how the Cumberland Bay and the Davis Strait are located, the difference between them is clearly visible. The first has no other access to the water body, except for the border with the Labrador Sea. At the same time, the compared Davis Strait connects 2 oceans. One part of the water area, it borders the Labrador Sea, which is located in the Atlantic. And the Baffin Sea, with the other side of its border connecting the Strait of Davis, belongs to the Arctic Ocean.
Classification and features
Despite the fact that the straits are compared with narrow paths from one body of water to another, this characteristic is very arbitrary. The Davis Strait in its narrowest part has a width of 338 km, which is almost 5 times higher than the parameters of Cumberland Bay. But this indicator is not decisive. The main role is given to the flow rate of the considered water body (it should connect two different basins).
The strait, as a rule, has a natural origin. If the land between two neighboring reservoirs was "opened" for the passage of water artificially, then it is customary to call such "paths" channels. An important characteristic of the straits is their navigability. And it depends on the depth. The Davis Strait on this indicator is quite accessible, but it often contains icebergs and drifting ice floes, which can be a threat to ships. In addition to depth, the largest and smallest widths, the flow direction and its velocity are also taken into account when characterizing.
