Tombolo at Stockton Island, Ashland County (Wisconsin).

Satellite view of Chesil Beach (shown as a long blue line) in Dorset, England (Landsat image viewed using NASA World Wind software)

Ap Lei Pai (left), an islet connected to Ap Lei Chau (right), a bigger island, in the southern waters in Hong Kong.

This diminutive tombolo, of less than ten metres length, connects the island of Fjärdholmen in the Stockholm Archipelago with an outlying rock at 59°29′21″N 18°49′53″E / 59.48925, 18.8314

A tombolo is a deposition landform such as a spit or bar which is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land. They usually form because the island causes wave refraction, depositing sand and shingle moved by longshore drift in each direction around the island where the waves meet. Eustatic sea level rise may also contribute to accretion as material is pushed up with rising sea levels. This is the case with Chesil Beach which connects the Isle of Portland to Dorset in England which is notable as the shingle ridge is parallel rather than perpendicular to the coast.

List of notable tombolos

• Mare Island, Vallejo, California
• Mersey Point, Shoalwater, Western Australia
• The isthmus at Aden, Yemen
• Aupouri Peninsula, New Zealand
• Barrenjoey Headland, Pittwater, New South Wales, Australia
• Chappaquiddick Island, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
• Charles Island, Connecticut
• Chesil Beach, Dorset, England
• Cheung Chau, Hong Kong
• Fingal Bay, New South Wales, Australia
• Howth Head, Dublin, Ireland
• Kettla Ness, Burra, Shetland Islands, Scotland
• Llandudno, Wales
• Maharees, Dingle Peninsula, Ireland
• Miquelon, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
• Monemvasia, Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece
• Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
• Nahant, Massachusetts (a natural tombolo, but connected to the mainland by a causeway)
• Palisadoes, Kingston, Jamaica
• Presqu'ile Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
• Quiberon, France
• St Ninian's Isle, Shetland Islands, Scotland
• Yei of Huney, Huney, Shetland Islands, Scotland
• Langness, Castletown Bay, Isle of Man
• Cádiz, Andalucía, Spain
• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
• Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan

See also

• Isthmus
• Bar

External links

• Geology.About.com's page on tombolos (useful for its descriptive photograph)
• Photograph: Chesil Beach
• Photograph: Chesil Beach and the Isle of Portland

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 10 December 2008, at 12:59.

Wikipedia Authorship and Review

Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by PediaView.com. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with PediaView.com.

Wikipedia Usage Guidelines

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Tombolo".

The URL for this specific entry is:

• http://pediaview.com/openpedia/Tombolo

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.