Shoal

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This article is about underwater landforms. For fish behavior, see Shoaling and
schooling. For other uses, see Shoal (disambiguation).
"Shoals" and "Sandbank" redirect here. For other uses, see Shoals (disambiguation)
and Sandbank (disambiguation).

Sandbar between St Agnes and Gugh on the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall,
England, United Kingdom.

A tidal sandbar connecting the islands of Waya and Wayasewa of the Yasawa Islands,
Fiji.
Sandbar between Nosy Iranja Be and Nosy Iranja Kely
(Nosy Iranja, Madagascar)

In oceanography, geomorphology, and earth sciences, a shoal is a natural submerged

ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated
material, and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. Often it refers
to those submerged ridges, banks, or bars that rise near enough to the surface of a
body of water as to constitute a danger to navigation. Shoals are also known as
sandbanks, sandbars, or gravelbars. Two or more shoals that are either separated by
shared troughs or interconnected by past or present sedimentary and hydrographic
processes are referred to as a shoal complex.[1][2]

The term shoal is also used in a number of ways that can be either similar or quite
different from how it is used in the geologic, geomorphic, and oceanographic
literature. Sometimes, this term refers to either any relatively shallow place in a
stream, lake, sea, or other body of water; a rocky area on the sea floor within an area
mapped for navigation purposes; a growth of vegetation on the bottom of a deep lake
that occurs at any depth; and as a verb for the process of proceeding from a greater to
a lesser depth of water.[2]