The Bothnian Bay or Bay of Bothnia (Swedish: Bottenviken, Finnish: Perämeri) is the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia, the northern part of the Baltic Sea. Its northernmost point is situated in Töre. The bay is bounded by Finland to the east, Sweden to the west, and the Kvarken sound to the south.
Major ports on the Finnish side are the ports in Oulu, Kemi and Raahe and on the Swedish side in Kalix, Luleå, Piteå and Skellefteå.
The maximum depth of the bay is 482 feet (147 m).
The bay has the highest rate of rising of land by post-glacial rebound in the Baltic Sea with an estimated 9 mms a year, this being the area in Northern Europe where the glacier was at its thickest. Today the Bothnian Bay lies around 300 meters higher than it did at the end of the Ice age. Ancient coastlines can be seen at much higher sites than today's sealevel.
Famous quotes containing the word bay:
“Three miles long and two streets wide, the town curls around the bay ... a gaudy run with Mediterranean splashes of color, crowded steep-pitched roofs, fishing piers and fishing boats whose stench of mackerel and gasoline is as aphrodisiac to the sensuous nose as the clean bar-whisky smell of a nightclub where call girls congregate.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)