The
Severn Estuary () is the
estuary of the
River Severn, the longest
river in
Great Britain. Its high
tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the
UK regarding renewable energy.
Geography
Definitions of the limits of the Severn Estuary vary. A narrower definition adopted by some maps is that the river becomes the Severn Estuary after the
Second Severn Crossing near
Severn Beach,
South Gloucestershire and stretches to a line from
Lavernock Point (south of
Cardiff) to
Sand Point near
Weston-super-Mare. A wider definition is that the estuary extends upstream to
Aust, the site of the
Severn Bridge. The estuary is about wide at Aust, and about wide between Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare.
The estuary forms the boundary between
Wales and
England in this stretch. On the northern side of the estuary are the
Caldicot and Wentloog Levels, on either side of the city of
Newport; and, to the west, the city of Cardiff together with the resort of
Penarth. On the southern, English, side, are
Avonmouth,
Portishead,
Clevedon, and Weston-super-Mare.
Denny Island is a small rocky island of , with scrub vegetation, approximately three miles north of Portishead. Its rocky southern foreshore marks the boundary between
England and
Wales, but the island itself is reckoned administratively to
Monmouthshire, Wales.The estuary has one of the highest tidal ranges in the world — about .The estuary's funnel shape, its tidal...
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