Newport Bay, in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

, United States, is the lower bay formed along the coast below the

Upper Newport Bay The Upper Newport Bay (known locally as "The Back Bay") is a large coastal wetland (an estuary) in Newport Beach, Southern California and a major stopover for birds on the Pacific Flyway. Dozens of species, including endangered ones, can be ob ...

, after the end of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. It was formed by sand, brought by ocean currents from the Santa Ana River and other rivers to the north, which constructed an offshore beach, now called the

Balboa Peninsula The Balboa Peninsula (also referred to as "Balboa" or "the Peninsula") is a neighborhood of the city of Newport Beach, Orange County, California. It is named after Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the first European to sight the Pacific ...

. The bay was named by the Spanish ''Bolsa de Gengar'' in the 18th century, to refer to the nearby

Tongva The Tongva ( ) are an Indigenous people of California from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, an area covering approximately . Some descendants of the people prefer Kizh as an endonym that, they argue, is more historically ...

and Acjachemen village of Genga. An estuary of the Santa Ana River in the late 19th century, it was dredged to form Newport Harbor, the harbor of

Newport Beach Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island draws ...

.USGS Map Name: Corona, CA 1899 1:125,000; Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection; California Topographic Maps from http://www.lib.utexas.edu accessed 4/25/2013
/ref> Newport Bay, California, on USGS Map Name: Newport Beach, CA, Map Center: N33° 36' 30" W117° 54' 33" from topoquest.com accessed on 4/23/2013
/ref>

References

* Bays of California Bodies of water of Orange County, California Newport Beach, California {{OrangeCountyCA-geo-stub