Fjard

Fjards vs. Fjords vs. Föhrden vs. Rias

• Fjords are characterized by steep high relief cliffs carved by glacial activity and often have split or branching channels.
• Fjards are a glacial depression or valley that has much lower relief than a fjord. Fjards fill with eroded local materials which assists "filling" along with rising sea level since the last ice age contributing as well. Other low relief landforms that are only associated with fjards such as mud flats, salt marshes, and flood plains further characterize the difference between fjords and fjards.
• "Föhrden" of the German coast and the fjords of Danish eastern Jutland together form a third type of glacial inlets. They tend to occur along older 'beheaded' river channels and open into the tideless Baltic sea.
• Rias are drowned valleys, such as the estuaries of Thames, Severn and Humber, firths of Tay and Forth. Rias indicate likely post-glacial subsidence of the land into a tidal sea.

  Examples

• Kanholmsfjärden in the Stockholm archipelago in Sweden
• Hjortsholm on the coast of Denmark
• Killary Harbour on the west coast of Ireland
• Somes Sound in Acadia National Park, Maine.