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}} Humboldt Bay is a natural bay and a multi-basin, bar-built coastal lagoon located on the rugged North Coast of California, entirely within Humboldt County. It is the largest protected body of water on the West Coast between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the second largest enclosed bay in California, and the largest port between San Francisco and Coos Bay, Oregon.〔 The largest city adjoining the bay is Eureka, the regional center and county seat of Humboldt County, followed by the college town of Arcata. These primary cities together with adjoining unincorporated communities and several small towns comprise a Humboldt Bay Area total population of nearly 80,000 people, which accounts for nearly 60% of the population of Humboldt County. In addition to being home to more than 100 plant species, 300 invertebrate species, 100 fish species, and 200 bird species, the bay and its complex system of marshes and grasses support hundreds of thousands of migrating and local shore birds. Commercially, this second largest estuary in California houses the largest oyster production operations on the West Coast, producing more than half of all oysters farmed in California. The Port of Humboldt Bay (sometimes also referred to as the Port of Eureka) is a deep water port with harbor facilities including large industrial docks at Fairhaven, Samoa, and Fields Landing designed to serve cargo and other vessels, while several marinas also located in Greater Eureka have the capacity to serve hundreds of small to mid-size boats and pleasure craft. Since the 1850s, the bay has been used extensively to export logs and forest products as part of the historic West coast lumber trade, with infrequent shipping occurring currently.〔 ==Geography== Humboldt Bay is the only deep water bay between the San Francisco Bay and Coos Bay, Oregon and the Port of Humboldt Bay is the only protected deep water port for large ocean-going vessels for the large region. Despite being the only protected harbor along nearly of coastline, the bay's location was undiscovered or at least unreliably charted for centuries after the first arrival of European explorers to the Pacific Coast. This is partially because it is extremely difficult to see from the ocean. The harbor opens to the sea through a narrow and historically treacherous passage, which was blocked from direct view due to sandbars now managed by jetties. Contributing to its isolation were features of the coastal mountain range which extends from the ocean approximately inland and the common marine layer (fog) in addition to frequent clouds or rain. Humboldt Bay began to form when a river valley drowned about 10,000 to 15,000 years ago during a period of rapid sea level rise.〔 Bay sediments also contain buried salt marsh deposits showing that areas of the bay have subsided during episodic large magnitude subduction earthquakes. Three rivers, the Mad, Elk and Eel, drained into Humboldt Bay during the mid-Pleistocene.〔 Subsequently the Mad River cut itself a new outlet to the sea, and the flow of the Eel was diverted by tectonic uplift of Table Bluff at the southern end of the bay, but Elk River continues to drain into Humboldt Bay.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Humboldt Bay」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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