Port Jackson, also referred to as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, or drowned river valley. The deeply indented shape of the ria reflects thedendritic pattern of drainage that existed before the rise in sea level that flooded the valley.
Aria (/ˈriːə/;[1]Galician:ría, feminine noun derived fromrío, river) is a coastalinlet formed by the partial submergence of an unglaciatedriver valley. It is a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea.
Typically rias have adendritic, treelike outline although they can be straight and without significant branches. This pattern is inherited from the dendritic drainage pattern of the flooded river valley. The drowning of river valleys along a stretch of coast and formation of rias results in an extremely irregular and indented coastline. Often, there are naturally occurring islands, which are summits of partly submerged, pre-existing hill peaks. (Islands may also be artificial, such as those constructed for theChesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.)
Aria coast is a coastline having several parallel rias separated by prominent ridges, extending a distance inland.[2][3][4] The sea level change that caused the submergence of a river valley may be eithereustatic (where global sea levels rise), orisostatic (where the local land sinks). The result is often a very largeestuary at the mouth of a relatively insignificant river (or else sediments would quickly fill the ria). TheKingsbridge Estuary inDevon, England, is an extreme example of a ria forming an estuary disproportionate to the size of its river; no significant river flows into it at all, only a number of small streams.[4]
The wordria comes fromGalicianría which comes from río (river). Rias are present all along theGalician coast inSpain. As originally defined, the term was restricted to drowned river valleys cut parallel to the structure of thecountry rock that was at right angles to the coastline. However the definition of ria was later expanded to other flooded river valleys regardless of the structure of the country rock.[citation needed]
For a time European geomorphologists[5] considered rias to include any broad estuarine river mouth, includingfjords. These are long narrowinlets with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved byglacial activity. In the 21st century, however, the preferred usage ofria by geologists and geomorphologists is to refer solely to drowned unglaciated river valleys. It therefore excludes fjords by definition, since fjords are products of glaciation.[2][3][4]
Cantabria: Ria of Tina Mayor, Ria of Tina Menor, Ría deSan Vicente de la Barquera, Ría of la Rabia, Ría of San Martín de la Arena, Ría ofMogro, Ría ofSolía, Ría of Carmen, Ría ofBoo, Ría of Tijero, Ría of Cubas, Ría de Ajo, Ría ofCabo Quejo, Ría of Treto, Ría of Oriñón.
New Zealand: Rias of various scales abound on the eastern shores of the upperNorth Island. On the west coast, in contrast, they are fewer but larger.Kaipara Harbour is the country's largest, and theHokianga Harbour, further north, is of historical significance to the nativeMāori people. TheMarlborough Sounds at the northern tip of theSouth Island form a large network of rias.
Hawaiʻi:Pearl Harbor onOʻahu is a ria, with the branches of West Loch, Middle Loch, East Loch, and Southeast Loch formed by the submerged drainages of Waikele, Waiau, Waimalu, and Hālawa streams respectively.
^Michael J. Kennish; Hans W. Paerl (15 June 2010).Coastal Lagoons: Critical Habitats of Environmental Change. CRC Press. pp. 361–.ISBN978-1-4200-8831-1.
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