Bay in the context of Mud flat

The Ionian Sea is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including Basilicata, Calabria, Sicily, and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania (and western Apulia, Italy) to the north, and the west coast of Greece, including the Peloponnese.

All major islands in the sea, which are located in the east of the sea, belong to Greece. They are collectively named the Ionian Islands, the main ones being Corfu, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, Lefkada, and Ithaca.

The Albanian Ionian Sea Coast (Albanian pronunciation: [brɛˈɡdɛ:ti jˈɔn] — Albanian: Bregdeti Jon) is a coastline of the north-eastern Ionian Sea, that encompasses the south-western border of the Republic of Albania, stretching from the southern half of Karaburun Peninsula, across the historical region of Labëria, the city of Sarandë, the mountains of the Ceraunians, and the Albanian Riviera, to the Lake of Butrint, where the Strait of Corfu separates the country from Greece.

Albania is located in Southern and South-eastern Europe in the western section of the Balkan Peninsula. It borders on Montenegro to the north-west, Kosovo to the north-east, North Macedonia to the east, Greece to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The coastline occupies a total length of 446 kilometres (277 mi) and explicitly marked by a mountainous landscape supplied with deep bays, numerous islands, high cliffs, rocky and sandy coasts and unique marine life.

This is a list of seas of the World Ocean, including marginal seas, areas of water, various gulfs, bights, bays, and straits. In many cases it is a matter of tradition for a body of water to be named a sea or a bay, etc., therefore all these types are listed here. Entities called "seas" which are not divisions of the World Ocean are not included in this list, nor are ocean gyres.

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba to Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles to the east from the Virgin Islands to Trinidad and Tobago, South America to the south from the Venezuelan coastline to the Colombian coastline, and Central America and the Yucatán Peninsula to the west from Panama to Mexico. The geopolitical region around the Caribbean Sea, including the numerous islands of the West Indies and adjacent coastal areas in the mainland of the Americas, is known as the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas on Earth and has an area of about 2,754,000 km (1,063,000 sq mi). The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m (25,217 ft) below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays: the Gulf of Gonâve, the Gulf of Venezuela, the Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, the Gulf of Paria and the Gulf of Honduras.

An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environments and are an example of an ecotone. Estuaries are subject both to marine influences such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water, and to fluvial influences such as flows of freshwater and sediment. The mixing of seawater and freshwater provides high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world.

Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea level began to rise about 10,000–12,000 years ago. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns. They can have many different names, such as bays, harbors, lagoons, inlets, or sounds, although some of these water bodies do not strictly meet the above definition of an estuary and could be fully saline.

The borders of the oceans are the limits of Earth's oceanic waters. The definition and number of oceans can vary depending on the adopted criteria. The principal divisions (in descending order of area) of the five oceans are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays, straits, and other terms. Geologically, an ocean is an area of oceanic crust covered by water.

See also: List of seas on Earth for the seas included in each oceanic area.

A landform is a land feature on the solid surface of the Earth or other planetary body. They may be natural or may be anthropogenic (caused or influenced by human activity). Landforms together make up a given terrain, and their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Landforms include hills, mountains, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas, including submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great oceanic basins.

The Karaburun Peninsula (Albanian: Gadishulli i Karaburunit), also known as Cape Linguetta, is a peninsula of the Mediterranean Sea located in Southern and Southeastern Europe, which is almost completely surrounded by both the Adriatic Sea to the north and the Ionian Sea to the south. It is located in Southwestern Albania along the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast, whereas the Strait of Otranto separates it from Italy. The Strait of Mezokanal separates the peninsula from Sazan Island, while in the southeast stretches the Bay of Vlorë. In classical antiquity, its name was the "Akrokeraunian Peninsula" (Ακροκεραύνιο ακρωτήριο), whose name was derived from the eponymous Akrokeraunian mountains; this is because, in terms of geology, the Rrëza e Kanalit on the peninsula represent the continuation of said mountains, which are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that extends parallel to the Ionian Sea. Karaburun peninsula is sometimes called Ceraunian Peninsula due to the name of the mountain range. Formed during the mesozoic era of the cretaceous and paleogene period, the crests of the mountain range form a northwest-southeast line with a series of distinct peaks along its irregular structure that are broken apart by steep and unequally slopes. The highest peaks are namely, the Maja Çaderës, Maja e Flamurit, Maja e Koretës and Maja e Ilqes.

The western section comprises a rough relief and is dotted with sandy and rocky beaches, sea caves, steep cliffs and several bays amongst them Cave of Haxhi Ali, Cape of Gjuhëz, Bay of Skaloma, Bay of Arushë, Bay of Dafinë, and most notably Bay of Grama, where ships and vessels anchored during classical antiquity. On the high and steep rock faces of the bay, which served also as a marble quarry, there are hundreds of rock inscriptions dating back to the 4th century BC.

The Bay of Vlorë (Albanian: Gjiri i Vlorës, pronounced [ˈɟiɾi i ˈvlɔɾəs]) is a large bay of the Adriatic Sea situated along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast on the Mediterranean Sea in Southern Europe. It opens to the sea in the northwest and is largely surrounded by the lagoon of Narta in the north, the city of Vlorë in the northeast, the mountains of the Ceraunians in the east and southeast, and the peninsula of Karaburun in the southwest and west.

An alluvial plain is a plain (an essentially flat landform) created by the deposition of sediment over a long period by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the smaller area over which the rivers flood at a particular time. In contrast, the alluvial plain is the larger area representing the region over which the floodplains have shifted over geological time.

As the highlands erode due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, or ocean. As the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel floodwater capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths, forming a meander (a curved path). The leftover higher locations, typically natural levees at the margins of the flood channel, will be eroded by lateral stream erosion, local rainfall, and possibly wind transport if the climate is arid and does not support soil-holding grasses. These processes, over geologic time, will form the plain, a region with little relief (local changes in elevation) yet with a constant but slight slope.

The Argolic Gulf (Greek: Αργολικός κόλπος, romanized: Argolikós kólpos), also known as the Gulf of Argolis, is a gulf of the Aegean Sea off the east coast of the Peloponnese, Greece. It is about 50 km long and 30 km wide. Its main port is Nafplio, at its northwestern end. At the entrance to the gulf is the island Spetses. This gulf and its islands are sometimes combined with the Saronic Gulf and Saronic Islands, with the result called the Argo-Saronic Gulf and the Argo-Saronic Islands. It is surrounded by two regional units: Arcadia to the southwest and Argolis to the north and east. The river Inachos drains into the Argolic Gulf near Nea Kios. The main islands in the gulf are Psili, Plateia and Bourtzi, a small island with a Venetian fortress that protects the port of Nafplio. The surrounding mountains protect it from the strong summer Meltemi wind.

The main towns that lie around the gulf are, from southwest to east:

In geography, a bight (/baɪt/) is a concave bend or curvature in a coastline, river or other geographical feature, or it may refer to a very open bay formed by such a feature. Such bays are typically broad, open, shallow and only slightly recessed.

A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, tidal creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves.

Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered bay. Geomorphology describes coves as precipitously walled and rounded cirque-like openings like a valley extending into or down a mountainside, or in a hollow or nook of a cliff or steep mountainside. A cove can also refer to a corner, nook, or cranny, either in a river, road, or wall, especially where the wall meets the floor.

A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on the surface of Earth or another planet. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rarely, puddles. A body of water does not have to be still or contained; rivers, streams, canals, and other geographical features where water moves from one place to another are also considered bodies of water.

Most are naturally occurring and massive geographical features, but some are artificial. There are types that can be either. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, but some natural lakes are used as reservoirs. Similarly, most harbors are naturally occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction.

An inlet is a typically long and narrow indentation of a shoreline such as a small arm, cove, bay, sound, fjord, lagoon or marsh, that leads to an enclosed larger body of water such as a lake, estuary, gulf or marginal sea.

A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape. Headlands are characterised by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, and steep sea cliff.

Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is flanked by land on three sides, whereas a headland is flanked by water on three sides. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form when weak (less resistant) rocks (such as sands and clays) are eroded, leaving bands of stronger (more resistant) rocks (such as chalk, limestone, and granite) forming a headland, or peninsula. Through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion of the headlands, coastlines eventually straighten out, then start the same process all over again.

A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carrying capacity of the water.The water from a river can enter the receiving body in a variety of different ways. The motion of a river is influenced by the relative density of the river compared to the receiving water, the rotation of the Earth, and any ambient motion in the receiving water, such as tides or seiches.

If the river water has a higher density than the surface of the receiving water, the river water will plunge below the surface. The river water will then either form an underflow or an interflow within the lake. However, if the river water is lighter than the receiving water, as is typically the case when fresh river water flows into the sea, the river water will float along the surface of the receiving water as an overflow.

Salamis Bay (Greek: Όρμος Σαλαμίνος) is a bay on the west coast of Salamis Island, Greece. It connects with the Saronic Gulf to the west. Its maximum length is approximately 9 km from northeast to west. Cape Petriti forms its southwestern end. The main town of the island, Salamina, is on the northeastern end of the bay. The village Aianteio is on its south coast.