What Are The Characteristics Of The Chesapeake Bay?

The Chesapeake Bay is about 200 miles (300 km) long. At its narrowest point, the Bay is 2.8 miles (4.5 km) wide. At its widest point, just south of the mouth of the Potomac River, it is 30 miles (50 km) wide. The Bay and its tributaries contain an astounding 11,684 miles (18,804 km) of shoreline.

What are 3 things you know about the Chesapeake Bay?

10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Chesapeake Bay

• The Bay holds about 18 trillion gallons of water.
• Only about half of the water in the Bay comes from the ocean.
• Roughly 51 billion gallons of water enter the Bay each day from the 100,000 streams, creeks, and rivers that feed it.

What is the Chesapeake Bay best known for?

As such a large estuary, the Bay impacts the health and safety of thousands of species of animals and plants, as well as the 18 million people who live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Chesapeake Bay’s ecosystem impacts the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

What were the characteristics of the Chesapeake colonies?

Economics in the colonies: Both the Chesapeake and Southern colonies had rich soil and temperate climates which made large-scale plantation farming possible. Both regions had an agriculture-based economy in which cash crops like tobacco, indigo, and cotton were cultivated for trade.

What is the Chesapeake Bay and why is it important?

It is one of the most productive estuaries in the world, with over 3,600 species of animals and plants. The bay provides vitally important habitats for wildlife, lots of recreational opportunities for people, and is an important fishery upon which both people and wildlife depend.

What type of water is the Chesapeake Bay?

The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary—a partially enclosed body of water where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. About half of the water in the Bay comes from salt water from the Atlantic Ocean. The other half drains into the Bay from its enormous 64,000-square-mile watershed.

Is Chesapeake Bay all saltwater?

In general, the lower Chesapeake Bay is salty and the upper Bay is fresh. Salinity gradually decreases as you move north, farther away from the ocean, and increases as you move south. Salinity is highest at the mouth of the Bay—averaging 25 to 30 ppt—where water from the Atlantic Ocean enters.

Is the Chesapeake Bay clean?

The Chesapeake Bay has been on EPA’s “dirty waters” list for decades. According to the Clean Water Act, states must develop a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) specifying the maximum pollution levels allowable to meet water quality standards for all waters identified on their “dirty waters” list.

Can you swim in the Chesapeake Bay?

Despite these health concerns, beaches along the tidal rivers and the Chesapeake Bay are often safe for swimming, fishing and boating.

How clear was the Chesapeake Bay?

New preliminary data from the Chesapeake Bay Program indicates that about 42 percent of the bay and its tidal tributaries met clean water standards from 2015 to 2017, while 58 percent failed to do so. Water quality in that period ranks as the highest achieved since monitoring began in 1985.

What type of colony was Chesapeake?

One of the first proprietary colonies, or colonies owned by an individual instead of a joint-stock company, was the Chesapeake colony of Maryland, granted by Charles I to Sir George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore.

What happened at Chesapeake Bay?

The Chesapeake Bay was the site of the Battle of the Chesapeake (also known as the “Battle of the Capes”, Cape Charles and Cape Henry) in 1781, during which the French fleet defeated the Royal Navy in the decisive naval battle of the American Revolutionary War.

What were the Chesapeake Bay colonies?

The Chesapeake Colonies were the Colony and Dominion of Virginia, later the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Province of Maryland, later Maryland, both colonies located in British America and centered on the Chesapeake Bay. Settlements of the Chesapeake region grew slowly due to diseases such as malaria.

What natural resources are found in the Chesapeake Bay?

The bay produces approximately 500 million pounds of oysters, crabs, and other seafood per year. The richness of its species can be seen in the value of the bay’s annual fish harvest, which is estimated at over $100 million. It yields more oysters and soft-shelled crabs than any other region in the United States.

What type of ecosystem is the Chesapeake Bay?

estuary
The Chesapeake Bay is an estuary (leaving MDE) and is the largest ecosystem of its kind in the United States. Estuaries are partially enclosed coastal bodies of water that occur where freshwater from streams and rivers mixes with saltwater from the ocean.

What type of animals live in the Chesapeake Bay?

Some of the most iconic Bay species—and perhaps the most important to the region’s recreation, economy, and way of life—include the blue crab, Eastern oyster, striped bass (also known as rockfish or striper), and Atlantic menhaden.

Does Chesapeake Bay have sharks?

The answer to the question is, yes. At least 12 species of sharks are known to visit parts of the Bay, and can be found here between summer and fall.

What formed the Chesapeake Bay?

About 35.5 million years ago an exploding meteor collided with Earth and formed a massive crater. Because rivers flow along the path of least resistance, the depression created by the crater caused river valleys to converge, setting the stage for the formation of the Chesapeake Bay.

Why is the Chesapeake Bay so shallow?

The Chesapeake Bay was formed about 10,000 years ago when glaciers melted and flooded the Susquehanna River valley. The Bay is surprisingly shallow. Its average depth, including all tidal tributaries, is about 21 feet.

Is the Chesapeake Bay polluted?

Our Bay is Polluted
Excess nutrient pollution is the leading cause of the decline and degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

How cold is the water in the Chesapeake Bay?

Chesapeake Bay is a city close to atlantic ocean. August is the month with the hottest water temperature at 80.6°F / 27°C.
Chesapeake Bay Summary.