Peresyp

A peresyp is a Russian hydrological term for a mouth bar, a narrow sandbar deposited at a river mouth that rises above the water like a spit and separates a liman, a lagoon type estuary of the Black Sea coast, from the open sea. It forms through the action of surf zone currents moving sand, gravel and crushed shell along the shore by longshore drift or transporting sediment out from the coast. Unlike a tombolo, a peresyp typically carries a channel, called a girlo in Russian, connecting the enclosed liman to the sea, and this channel can cyclically close and reopen, sometimes raising the liman salinity through evaporation when closed. Notable examples include the Peresypskyi district of Odesa in Ukraine, built on a wide mouth bar separating the Khadzhibey and Kuialnyk estuaries from the Black Sea, the Anapa Peresyp on Russia's Black Sea coast, and the Tylihul Peresyp on the Tylihul estuary.