Lagoon (redirected from Lagoons)

lagoon

Area of relatively shallow, quiet water with access to the sea but separated from it by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. Coastal lagoons have low to moderate tides and constitute about 13% of the world's coastline. Their water is colder than the sea in winter and warmer in summer. In warm regions, evaporation may more than balance any freshwater input and may result in hypersaline water and even the buildup of thick salt deposits. Coral-reef lagoons occur on marginal reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef, but the most spectacular examples, some more than 30 mi (50 km) across, are associated with Pacific atolls.

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lagoon

1. a body of water cut off from the open sea by coral reefs or sand bars

2. any small body of water, esp one adjoining a larger one

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lagoon [lə′gün]

(geography)

A shallow sound, pond, or lake generally near but separated from or communicating with the open sea.

A shallow fresh-water pond or lake generally near or communicating with a larger body of fresh water.

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Lagoon 

(1) A shallow natural water basin connected with the sea by a narrow strait (or straits) or separated from the sea by a bar, a strip of alluvial land. Because of its weak link with the open sea or its complete isolation from it, the lagoon has a salinity that is different from the sea’s (either higher or lower) and distinctive lagoon deposits and flora and fauna. Lagoons form as the result of the separation of a segment of the offshore waters of a sea or lake by a coastal bar or spit or other accumulative coastal formation. Lagoons that are separated by a bar extend parallel to the shore. Lagoon coasts may stretch for thousands of kilometers, for example, the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In the USSR lagoon coasts are common on the Black Sea north of the Danube, the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, the Island of Sakhalin, and the Kamchatka and Chukchi peninsulas.

(2) A section of sea lying between coral reefs and the coast of a continent or island or within an atoll.