Location of the Gulf of Finland with respect to the
Baltic region.
The
Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the
Baltic Sea that extends between
Finland (to the north) and
Estonia (to the south) all the way to
Saint Petersburg in
Russia, where the river
Neva drains into it. Other major cities around the gulf include
Helsinki and
Tallinn. The eastern parts of the Gulf of Finland belong to Russia and some of Russia's most important oil harbours are located farthest in, near Saint Petersburg (including
Primorsk). As the seaway to Saint Petersburg, the Gulf of Finland has been and continues to be of considerable strategic importance to Russia. Some of the environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea are at their most pronounced in the shallow,
cul-de-sac gulf.
Geography
The Gulf of Finland has an area of , its length is and it is up to wide. The width at the mouth of the gulf is and the distance from
Porkkala to
Rohuneeme, outside
Tallinn, is . The gulf narrows in the east, eventually becoming the wide
Gulf of Kronstadt. The largest bay on the northern coast is the
Gulf of Vyborg, and the
Narva Bay is the largest on the south coast.
thumb|300px|The south coast of the Gulf of Finland has three major bays: [[Narva Bay,
Luga Bay, and
Koporye Bay, separated by
Kurgalsky and
Soikinsky Peninsulas.]]
There are several islands in the Gulf of Finland.
Hogland,
Tyters,
Lavansaari and
Seiskari are the largest of these, and there are countless islands along the very splintered northern shoreline all the way from the west to the Gulf of Vyborg in the east. The deepest parts of the gulf can be found at the mouth of the gulf, where there is a deep with a depth of . There are even depths of over at the southern coast, while the depth at the northern coast never exceeds . Much of the northern shoreline is quite shallow and rocky, making it difficult, even dangerous to navigate coastal waters there without accurate charts. The deepest point, , is at the Estonian coast, just northeast of Tallinn. About 5% of the water mass in the Baltic Sea is located in the Gulf of Finland.
The
ocean currents tend to move clockwise on the northern hemisphere (due to the
Coriolis effect), and therefore the currents are moving eastwards in near the Finnish coast, and westwards near the Estonian coast. The already low
salinity (4‰) of the gulf's waters is even lower in the eastern end, since the large river
Neva has its outlet there.
Environmental issues
The severe
eutrophication of the Gulf of Finland is the biggest problem for the sea –
algal blooms, which occur during summers, can cover large areas.
Cities and Towns
Major Islands
Gulf of Finland
See also
