ABSTRACT
Along the British east coast at about 53°N, the Wash forms a roughly rectangular embayment of 20 by 30 km, which is open toward the North Sea, has a spring tidal range of 6.5 m and a neap tidal range of 3.5 m. The inner margin around high tide level is covered with salt marshes and about half of the remainder of the embayment is filled with bare intertidal sediment. Most of the intertidal flats farther inshore consist of interlaminated sand and mud: on the seaward side, sand with mud laminae; more inward, mud with sand laminae. The sand with mud laminae consists on the average of 70% sand with some mollusk shell fragments; the mud with sand laminae, of more than 50% silty mud. The Baie du Mont-St. Michel is located within the Gulf of St. Malo along the northwest coast of France around 48° 40' N on the western side of the English Channel.
