The Bay of Greifswald''Utrata Fachwörterbuch: Geographie - Englisch-Deutsch/Deutsch-Englisch''
by Jürgen Utrata (2014). Retrieved 10 Apr 2014. or Greifswald Bodden (german: Greifswalder Bodden) is a basin in the southwestern

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

, off the shores of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...

. With an area of 514 km², it is the largest

Bodden Bodden are briny bodies of water often forming lagoons, along the southwestern shores of the Baltic Sea, primarily in Germany's state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. These lagoons can be found especially around the island of Rügen, Usedom an ...

of the German Baltic coast.Ulrich Schiewer, Ecology of Baltic coastal waters, Springer, 2008, p.87, To the west is the island of

Rügen Rügen (; la, Rugia, ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, where ...

; to the southeast, the island of

Usedom Usedom (german: Usedom , pl, Uznam ) is a Baltic Sea island in Pomerania, divided between Germany and Poland. It is the second largest Pomeranian island after Rügen, and the most populous island in the Baltic Sea. It is north of the Szczecin ...

; to the east, the

Bay of Pomerania The Bay of Pomerania ( pl, Zatoka Pomorska; german: Pommersche Bucht; csb, Pòmòrskô Hôwinga) is a basin in the southwestern Baltic Sea, off the Pomeranian shores of Poland and Germany. It stretches between the northernmost tip of the island ...

, and to the south, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mainland. The bay is also joined to the Baltic Sea through the

Strelasund The Strelasund or Strela Sound is a sound or lagoon of the Baltic Sea which separates Rügen from the German mainland. It is crossed by a road and rail bridge called the Rügendamm in Stralsund. It runs northwest to southeast from a small shallow ...

, a narrow

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' b ...

separating Rügen from the mainland. The bay's northern end is sometimes called the ''Rügischer Bodden''. The bay itself has a heavily indented coastline, making it a bay of bays. The headlands of Mönchgut (in east Rügen) and Zudar (in south Rügen) – the former actually being made up of several peninsulae – subdivide the bay into many smaller bays. The bay's main port is

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...

. Amongst the islands in the east of the ''bodden'' are

Vilm The Baltic Sea island of Vilm lies in the bay south of the much larger island of Rügen, and is one of Germany's most remote and tranquil spots. Covering less than , Vilm is the remnant of a moraine left as the glaciers retreated about 6000 ye ...

, Koos, Riems and the former island of Stubber, now a sandbank. The Bay of Greifswald is quite shallow, with an average depth of 5.6 m, and a maximum depth of 13.5 m. Its water is

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estu ...

rather than briny owing to inflow from rivers, and the Baltic Sea's complex

hydrography Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primar ...

(saltier water is generally found only at greater depths there). The average salinity is at 7 to 8 psu,Reinhard Lampe in Hans Heinrich Blotevogel, Jürgen Ossenbrügge, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geographie, ''"lokal verankert, weltweit vernetzt": 2. Deutscher Geographentag, Hamburg, 2.-9. Oktober 1999 Tagungsbericht und wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen'', Franz Steiner Verlag, 2000, p.123, ranging from 5.3 and 12.2 psu. Before German reunification in 1990, the Bay of Greifswald was a public

watersports Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants. On the water * Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races * Boatin ...

venue, unlike most of

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

's Baltic coast. The local geography made it easy to keep watch over the bay, thereby thwarting those who thought to use it to flee the country. The place outside the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

nearest the bay was the

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

island of Bornholm, more than 100 km away. File:GreifswalderBodden.png, Map File:Caspar David Friedrich 017.jpg, ''Flachlandschaft am Greifswalder Bodden'' (Flat Landscape on the Bay of Greifswald), Caspar David Friedrich, about 1830-1834 File:Südlicher Strelasund bei Tremt.jpg, The

seen from Sundhagen

References

{{Authority control Greifswald

See also

References