Gulf

A gulf is a large recessed coastal body of water that connects to an ocean or sea, generally larger than a bay though the two terms overlap. The biggest gulfs and bays formed through plate tectonics, opening up as the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart along curved and indented fault lines and its fragments moved apart, a history that produced the Gulf of Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Bengal. Smaller gulfs and bays also form through coastal erosion by rivers and glaciers, with a glacier-cut inlet known as a fjord and a river-cut one, with gentler slopes, known as a ria.