ABSTRACT
Wind flat deposits are formed along coasts where the tidal range is small, in the order of several decimeters at most, and onshore winds push the water regularly toward the coast. The area that is flooded depends on the flatness of the coast and the temporal and local rise in sea level; flooding can cover an area up to 10 or 20 km inland. The flooded area is temporarily covered with salt or brackish water and a vegetation may develop (if at all) that is adapted to this. In the following sections an overview is given of the most important wind flat coasts in the world. The inaccessibility of most of the Russian and east European literature on this subject makes the sections on the Baltic, Black Sea, the Caspian, and east Siberia, including the majority of wind flat coasts, shorter than desirable. The main difference between tidal flats and wind flats is the more cyclic character of the tidal flats where flooding occurs in daily, fortnightly, and often also seasonal cycles, whereas the flooding of wind flats is more variable and episodic, but often also with a seasonal variation.
