Hull Gut shows the classic conditions for a gut: a large body of water, subject to tides, drained through a small channel, resulting in heavy flow and strong currents
Many guts are straits but some are at a river mouths where tidal currents are strong. The comparatively large quantities of water that flow quite quickly through a gut can cause heavy erosion that results in a channel deeper than the rest of the surrounding seabed, and the currents may present a hazard to ships and boats at times.
The term "gut" is primarily (though not exclusively) applied to channels of the coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of North America. A similar term of related but not identical meaning, "gat", is applied to some narrow waterways of theNorth Sea andBaltic Sea coasts of Europe.
View across Hull Gut in Massachusetts ofPeddocks Island from the mainland
TheGut of Gibraltar, an alternate and mostly archaic[10] name for the Strait of Gibraltar
Many other channels in Canada are named "Gut".[11] Applied to proper names, "gut" is sometimes used more broadly. For instance South Gut and North Gut at the settlement ofSouth Gut St. Anns, Nova Scotia are just inlets, whileBrewery Gut in England andThe Gut in Ontario are fast-flowing stretches of river,Jigsaw Rock Gut in Antarctica is agully, andGardner's Gut in New Zealand is a cave system. Conversely, some guts are not so named, such asThe Rip, a gut in Australia, where the term "gut" is not used.
"Gut" is sometimes used in an entirely different way, to denote a smallcreek. This use is found on the east coast of North America, from theMid-Atlantic States down into the Caribbean islands.
^Taylor, H.E.; Longfellow, H.W.; Chandler, J. U. (1881).Topographical Map of Roque Island, Maine area 1274 acres and including barred islands 1309.3 acres (Map). Roque Island.
^Shurtleff, Elizabeth; Thaxter, Celia; McGill, Frederick T. (1927).Map of the Isles of Shoals, formerly known as Smith's Isles (Map). Isles of Shoals: Jesse & Donahue.
^Ian Parker (December 26, 2013)."Falkland Islands".Evanescant Light. Parker Lab, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine. RetrievedAugust 12, 2014.
