Sea inlets are passages which allow the sea to arrive at a continent; this

passages are long and large and have taller topographical areas at both
sides. In other words, fluvial valleys flooded by the sea. This way the
estuaries will depend on the level of the sea, so it depends on the following
factors: the global climate, the regional tectonics and the sedimentary
contributions to the coastal zones.
-

Tectonic structures configure a frame on which is developed a

fluvial network that, in this case, evolves fundamentally due to other
causes, like the changes in the levels of base tied to eustatic changes
(slow and continious variations of the level of the sea b due to
ascending or descending movements of the ocean, and that are
global).

These faults do not have a decisive paper when setting up the estuary but
they condition the recent fluvial networks, creating this way a frame for the
training of the estuaries.
-

Sedimentary contributions will determine the flow of rivers, which

will finish running into sea inlets.

-The successive descents of the level of the sea (regressions) were

the main causes of the fluvial embeddings by which at present the
estuaries flow by. In other words, every drop of the level of base of
the river (height of the mouth) causes a fluvial embedding to be
adjusted to a topographically lower mouth. The repetition of the
process (due to successive glaciations and as a consquence,
descents of the level of the sea) causes the fluvial valleys to get
deepen, that in the case of the Galician estuaries, this process is
promoted by one high pending near the coast, which compensates
the little flow of small rivers.
The global level of the sea is determined by the glacial cycles of the
quaternary one. The fluvial valleys on which estuaries are developed,
have not started until 9000 years ago, but they will not reach a
similar configuration to the current one until 6000 years ago,but even
at this time, they do not have a way of working analogous to the
present one.

Specifically in the Galician coast tectonics movement is also the

direct cause of the morphology of incoming and outgoing of the sea.

This system of fractures makes Galician coastal strip to be divided in

blocks, so that some blocks are sunk and others are raised. This way
high blocks are going to form the continental outgoings or capes
(Horst), being the most tall topographical areas, and that at the same
time, they separate among themselves the estuaries, which are the
sea blocks sunk (Grabens).
An estuary, as a rule, is formed by the flooding of the final course of
a river caused by the collapse of the embroiders coastal, due to a
raised of the level of the sea or due to both events at the same time.
A new nuance has to be added to this hypothesis: in Galiza, the key
factor that favored his creation was the flooding because of a raised
from the level of the sea due to the merge of the water of the poles.
And the more paradoxical point is that it happened in a moment in
which the Galician terrestrial cork was lifting, a geological process
that continues at present.
.
Estuary
Length (km)
Surface

Muros and
Noia
12
120

km
( 2)

Volume (

2700

km
River

Tambre

The estuary of Noia presents the

coastal morphology which
characterizes the group of bays of our
coast, that Nonn (1969)
and Pannekoek (1970) included in the
group of Lower Rias, in tectonics have
a predominant paper. They are
situated in the south, and present a
tectonic orientation SW-NE.
The breach of the supercontinent Pangea, whose resulting fragments
formed the current physiognomy of the continents, was basic for the
formation of all the Galician estuaries. Traditionally the Estuary of
Noia was put as example of collapse estuary (Nonn, 1966), but its
geological structure does not indicate the existence of a fracture with
a noticeable displacement.

It presents a complex form composed by a triangular sector at the

end of which there is an enlargement stretched in perpendicular
direction to the estuary, product of the intersection of sediments
bands and part of the Complex Malpica-Tui and of the corridors whose
directions fracture are NNE-SSO and NE-SO, and the river Tambre
circulating on it.
RESOURCES:
http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/sociedad/2013/03/31/formaronrias-gallegas/0003_201303G31P27991.htm
http://averkpasa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ntgeogPlanet_formaci%C3%B3nR%C3%ADasGal.pdf
Origen y evolucin geomorfolgica de las ras atlnticas de Galicia, J.L. Pags
Valcarlos
Formacin e dinmica das ras galegas, Antonio Miguel Martnez Graa
As ras, Campus do Mar (Francisco Sora, Antonio Bode, Fernando Gonzlez Laxe,
Gonzalo Mndez, Guilermo Francs, Juan Jos Gonzlez, Nuria Gonzlez e Ricardo
Prego).
http://www.danival.org/100%20biolomar/1300mar/rias_gal_2.html
http://galiciaonline84.blogspot.com.es/2010/05/como-se-formaronlas-rias-gallegas.html
http://tv.campusdomar.es/en/video/1754.html