Southern Bight

The Southern Bight is part of the southern North Sea between the coasts of the Netherlands , Belgium and Great Britain . The northern limit is the Dogger Bank . The sea area is also called the Southwest North Sea . The transition to the English Channel is the Dover Strait .

Apart from the Deep Water Channel , a depression up to 60 meters deep that runs from Norfolk into the Dover Strait, the entire area is less than 40 meters deep and undersea is characterized by numerous sandbars. Important rivers that flow into the Southern Bight are the Rhine , Maas and Scheldt .

Two tidal waves from the Atlantic meet in the bay : a massive wave that runs down the British coast from the north and a wave of much less mass that crosses the English Channel with a large tidal range . Both meet in Southern Bight and form an amphidrome off the coast of Norfolk . Within the bay, a current runs in a south-westerly direction in the western part and in a north-easterly direction in the east, which carries sediments and sandbars with it over time.

The weather in the bay is strongly influenced by westerly winds.

Web links

• Comprehensive article on the geological development of the Southern Bight (English; PDF file; 270 kB)