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Coastline
Coastline comprises coastal zone and part of land and sea in its vicinity – coastal land and coastal sea. Continental coastline is the nominal line connecting the topmost ends of bays and marine coastline is the nominal line connecting the ends of peninsulas. If islands are present in coastal sea, the marine coastline runs along the islands that reach the farthest towards the sea.
Sea bottom is slightly sloped in Estonia and the coast is sloped, contains bluffs (characterised by abrasion platform; a good example is coastal bank) and flat coast (characterised by accumulation of sediments).
Estonian coast is versatile and coastal types are frequently altered in short distance. Multitude of coastal types and their frequent alteration is caused by the geological structure and history of the area.
Estonian coastline runs for 1240 km on the continent and 2540 km on the islands. Estonia has ca 1500 islands, of which approximately 80% are small islets. 60% of these islets are found in the West-Estonian Archipelago.
North-Estonian cliff
Coastal meadows
Coastal zone in Europe
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