A gut is a narrow coastal body of water, a
channel or
strait, usually one that is subject to strong tidal currents flowing back and forth.[1][2][3]
Coastal channels
Hull Gut shows the classic conditions for a gut: a large body of water, subject to tides, drained through a small channel, resulting in heavy flow and strong currents
Many guts are straits but some are at a river mouths where tidal currents are strong. The comparatively large quantities of water that flow quite quickly through a gut can cause heavy erosion that results in a channel deeper than the rest of the surrounding seabed, and the currents may present a hazard to ships and boats at times.
The term "gut" is primarily (though not exclusively) applied to channels of the coastal waters of the Atlantic coast of North America. A similar term of related but not identical meaning, "
gat", is applied to some narrow waterways of the
North Sea and
Baltic Sea coasts of Europe.
View across Hull Gut in Massachusetts of
Peddocks Island from the mainland
The
Gut of Gibraltar, an alternate and mostly archaic[10] name for the Strait of Gibraltar
Many other channels in Canada are named "Gut".[11] Applied to proper names, "gut" is sometimes used more broadly. For instance South Gut and North Gut at the settlement of
South Gut St. Anns, Nova Scotia are just inlets, while
Brewery Gut in England and
The Gut in Ontario are fast-flowing stretches of river,
Jigsaw Rock Gut in Antarctica is a
gully, and
Gardner's Gut in New Zealand is a cave system. Conversely, some guts are not so named, such as
The Rip, a gut in Australia, where the term "gut" is not used.
^Taylor, H.E.; Longfellow, H.W.; Chandler, J. U. (1881). Topographical Map of Roque Island, Maine area 1274 acres and including barred islands 1309.3 acres (Map). Roque Island.
^Shurtleff, Elizabeth; Thaxter, Celia; McGill, Frederick T. (1927). Map of the Isles of Shoals, formerly known as Smith's Isles (Map). Isles of Shoals: Jesse & Donahue.
^Ian Parker (December 26, 2013).
"Falkland Islands". Evanescant Light. Parker Lab, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, University of California Irvine. Retrieved August 12, 2014.