(a) Relatively narrow seas or stretches of water between two close landmasses and connecting two larger bodies of water; (b) Deeper parts of a moving body of water (as bays, estuaries, or straits) through which the main current flows or which affords the best passage through an area otherwise too shallow to navigate. [Glossary of Geology, 4th ed.]
This category is also used for chutes (hydrographic), cutoffs (hydrographic), inlets, lake channels, marine channels, narrows (hydrographic), navigation channels, reaches (hydrographic), sounds (bodies of water), and straits.
Alexandria Digital Library Feature Type Thesaurus
