A gat (german: Seegatt, ''Seegat'' or diminutive ''Gatje'') is a

strait A strait is an oceanic landform connecting two seas or two other large areas of water. The surface water generally flows at the same elevation on both sides and through the strait in either direction. Most commonly, it is a narrow ocean channe ...

that is constantly eroded by currents flowing back and forth, such as tidal currents. It is usually a relatively narrow but deep, up to passage between land masses (such as an island and a peninsula) or shallow bars in an area of

mudflats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...

. A gat is sometimes a shallower passage on lagoon coasts, including those without any

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun and the rotation of Earth. Tidal range depends on time and location. ...

. According to Whittow a gat is either an inshore channel or strait dividing offshore islands from the mainland e.g. the

Frisian Islands The Frisian Islands, also known as the Wadden Islands or the Wadden Sea Islands, form an archipelago at the eastern edge of the North Sea in northwestern Europe, stretching from the northwest of the Netherlands through Germany to the west of Denma ...

, or it is an opening in a line of sea cliffs allowing access to the coast from inland. It is similar, but not identical, to a gut, which is a narrow river channel or strait prior to joining an open

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

. Leser restricts its use to deep, but relatively narrow inlets in the

Wadden Sea The Wadden Sea ( nl, Waddenzee ; german: Wattenmeer; nds, Wattensee or ; da, Vadehavet; fy, Waadsee, longname=yes; frr, di Heef) is an intertidal zone in the southeastern part of the North Sea. It lies between the coast of northwestern conti ...

that are scoured out by currents, giving the example of the gap between the Frisian islands of

Juist Juist () ( nds, Juist) is an island and municipality in the district of Aurich in Lower Saxony in Germany. The island is one of seven East Frisian Islands at the edge of the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea in the southern North Sea. It is located between B ...

and

Nordeney Norderney ( nds, Nördernee) is one of the seven populated East Frisian Islands off the North Sea coast of Germany. The island is , having a total area of about and is therefore Germany's ninth-largest island. Norderney's population amounts ...

Description

The comparatively large quantities of water that flow quite quickly through a gat cause heavy erosion that results in a channel deeper than the rest of the surrounding seabed and also endangers neighbouring islands. When the water masses from mud flats behind the islands surge out again into the sea as ebb currents, they flow rapidly again through the narrow gat. But as these water masses break out into the open sea, they spread out and slow down. As a result, on this seaward side of the gat, the particles of sand and mud carried with the water settle and form an ebb delta with its shallower waters between the islands. The sandbanks so formed are often known in Germany as ''plate'' (pronounced "plah-ter", see

Kachelotplate The Kachelotplate is a sandbar in the North Sea. It lies near the German coast, west of the island of Juist. Since 2003, enough stays above high tide that it can be called an island. Grass and dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- ...

). The point where the water pouring out of the gat runs over these banks, which often lie in an arc between the islands, is the sand bar (german: Barre). This is the shallowest part of the gat for shipping, but also the deepest point on the shallowest line between the islands. A flood delta is formed in a similar way on the landward side of the gat. A navigation channel to the open sea is usually marked out in the gats by the waterway and shipping authorities. The area of the bar is usually the most dangerous spot; this is where

rip tide A rip tide, or riptide, is a strong offshore current that is caused by the tide pulling water through an inlet along a barrier beach, at a lagoon or inland marina where tide water flows steadily out to sea during ebb tide. It is a strong tidal flo ...

s and, especially when the current flows against the wind, very dangerous ground swells may occur. Passages between inner and outer coastal waters, such as at the ends of spits of

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') a ...

s or along ''

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 and th ...

'' coasts are also referred to as gats. The term "gat" is primarily (though not exclusively) applied to waterways of the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts of Europe. A similar term of related but not identical meaning, gut, is mainly applied to channels of the coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of North America.

Etymology

The name comes from the

Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle L ...

and

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

word "gat" which means "gap". "Gat" is incorporated into some Dutch or Dutch-derived proper names of passages (e. g.

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

Veerse Gat The Veerse Gat or Veeregat was the sea channel between Walcheren and Noord-Beveland islands in Zeeland in the Netherlands. In 1961 as part of the Delta Plan it was blocked off by the Veerse Gatdam and made into an inland lake called Veerse Meer Th ...

) which may or may not be proper gats. In English names, both "gat" (e. g.

Fisherman's Gat Fisherman's Gat is a much-deepened channel in the North Sea, between the final long line of shoals loosely associated with the Thames Estuary.

) and "gut" (e. g.

Digby Gut The Digby Gut is a narrow channel connecting the Bay of Fundy with the Annapolis Basin. The town of Digby, Nova Scotia is located on the inner portion of the western side of the Gut. The eastern entrance is marked by the Point Prim Lighthouse. Str ...

Hull Gut Hull Gut is a gut (a narrow, naturally dredged deep-water channel) about half a mile wide and thirty-five feet deep, in Boston Harbor running between Pemberton Point in Hull and the East Head of Peddocks Island. Along with its sister channel, Wes ...

Gut of Canso The Strait of Canso (also Gut of Canso or Canso Strait, also called Straits of Canceau or Canseaux until the early 20th century) is a strait located in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It divides the Nova Scotia peninsula from Cape Breton ...

) are seen. In German, "Gat" (as well as "Seegatt" and the diminutive "Gatje") can refer to an arm of the sea which is not necessarily subject to strong tidal currents; for instance, the

Prerower Strom The Prerower Strom, Prerow Strom
at www.ostseeferieninfo.de. Retrieved 27 Jun 2019. or ...

("Prerow Stream"), which is a

regressive delta A regressive delta is a body of sediment that forms at the landward end of a gut. In contrast to river deltas, regressive deltas are not caused by fluvial sedimentation but by marine sedimentation. During storm events, sediment-bearing sea water ...

, is a gat. Seegatt (also "Neues illauerTief" ew Deep is the German proper name of the Strait of Baltiysk (Pillau) which connects the

Vistula Lagoon The Vistula Lagoon ( pl, Zalew Wiślany; russian: Калининградский залив, transliterated: ''Kaliningradskiy Zaliv''; german: Frisches Haff; lt, Aistmarės) is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles (90 ...

to the

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 from ...

. The name of

Hell Gate Hell Gate is a narrow tidal strait in the East River in New York City. It separates Astoria, Queens, from Randall's and Wards Islands. Etymology The name "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch phrase ''Hellegat'' (it first appeared on ...

, a gat (or gut) in the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, is derived from archaic Dutch ''Hellegat'' (meaning possibly "clear opening"), a fairly common toponym (place name) for waterways in the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

List of gats

The following is a list of gats, including named gats that may or may not be true gats as defined above:

German Bight

* Blindes Randzelgat * Dukegat * Dwarsgat * Emshörngat * Evermannsgat * Großputengat * Haaksgat * Harle-Seegatt * Homme Gat * Horsborngat * Hubertgat * Hungat * Kalfamergat * Nordergat * Norderneyer Seegat * Otzumer Balje * Randzelgat * Riffgat * Rütergat * Skittgat * Spaniergat * Stickers Gat * Wagengat *

Wichter Ee The Wichter Ee is a gat between the East Frisian Islands of Norderney (to the west) and Baltrum (to the east). At the eastern end of the island of Norderney in the Wichter Ee are sandbanks occupied by common and grey seals. The western end of Ba ...

Netherlands

* Amelander Gat * Duinkers Gat * East Gat, West Cappel * Eijerlandse Gat * Homme Gat * Molengat * North Gat,

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of De ...

* Russian Gat,

Vlie The Vlie or Vliestroom is the seaway between the Dutch islands of Vlieland, to its southwest, and Terschelling, to its northeast. The Vlie was the estuary of the river IJssel in medieval times. In 1666 the English Admiral Robert Holmes burnt a ...

* Schulpe Gat * Veer Gat

Baltic Sea

(not strictly a gat despite its name) * Seegatt

United Kingdom

* Cockle Gat,

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

Fisherman's Gat Fisherman's Gat is a much-deepened channel in the North Sea, between the final long line of shoals loosely associated with the Thames Estuary.

, Thames Estuary * Foulger's Gat, Thames Estuary * Hasborough Gat, Yarmouth * Nicholas Gat, Yarmouth

References

{{Coastal geography Coastal and oceanic landforms Wadden Sea Coastal geography