Bay of Pamlico

The bay of Pamlico (WFP-lik-O) in North Carolina is, with 129 km length by 24 to the 48 km of width, largest Lagon of the East coast of the United States. This stretch of water is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks, a low and sandy string of islands, whose Eastern end is the Cap Hatteras. Two rivers, taking their source in the the Appalachian Mountains, flow there, the Neuse and the Pamlico (the latter being tributary of the Tar River). Pamlico Sound communicates to north with the Baie of Albemarle by the Détroit of Roanoke and the Détroit of Croatan. The Détroit of Core forms the southernmost end of it.

The adventurer Florentin Giovanni da Verrazzano, who explored these accesses for the account of François Ier in 1524, believed capacity to identify this immense bay with the Pacific Ocean. The currents through the straits making communicate bay and the Atlantic Ocean are sometimes very violent one, and constitute a considerable factor of silting, with shallow waters which were fatal with more than one ship during the centuries. From the low depth of this bay, the currents and tides are there very related on the wind and the atmospheric pressure. This tendency is still amplified by the Mascaret S of the rivers which flow there: strong winds, for little which they are directed in the axis of flow of these rivers (i.e. towards the west), can make assemble their level of 60 cm in the three hours space.

The Bay of Pamlico is only part of a whole of estuaries inter-connected which forms, after the Baie of Chesapeake, the second larger lagoon of the United States. Seven principal estuaries can be distinguished:

bay of Albemarle,
the bay of Currituck,
the strait of Croatan,
the bay of Pamlico,
the bay of Bug,
the strait of Core,
and the strait of Roanoke.

Two littorals are state-owned property: the Cape National Hatteras Seashore and the Cape National Lookout Seashore, on the islands of the Outer Banks. They shelter many sites of nesting of Palmipède S, among which the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and the Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge on the continent.

External bonds

Harbor office of bay of Pamlico

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