Physiography
The irani shore is mountainous, and there much are cliffs ; elsewhere a narrow coastal plain with beaches, intertidal flats, and small estuaries borders the gulf. The coastal obviously widens north of Būshehr ( Bushire ), Iran, and passes into the broad deltaic plain of the Tigris and Euphrates and Kārūn rivers. Cliffs are rare on the Arabian shore of the gulf, except around the base of the Qatar Peninsula and in the extreme southeast around the Strait of Hormuz, where they form the outstanding seashore of the Musandam Peninsula. Most of the Arabian land is bordered by arenaceous beaches, with many belittled islands enclosing small lagoons .
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The gulf is shallow, rarely deeper than about 300 feet ( 90 metres ), although depths exceeding 360 feet ( 110 metres ) are found at its entrance and at isolated localities in its southeastern contribution. It is perceptibly asymmetrical in profile, with the deepest body of water occurring along the iranian slide and a broad shallow area, which is normally less than 120 feet ( 35 metres ) deep, along the arab coast. There are numerous islands, some of which are strategic arms limitation talks plugs or domes and others merely accumulations of coral and skeletal debris.
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The Persian Gulf receives only modest amounts of river-borne sediment except in the northwest, where huge quantities of silt up are deposited by the Tigris, Euphrates, and Kārūn rivers and early smaller streams as they empty into the gulf, by way of the Shatt Al- ’ Arab. The rivers reach their extremum flow in spring and early on summer, when the snow melts in the mountains ; black floods sometimes result. There are some ephemeral streams on the iranian coast south of Būshehr, but virtually no fresh water system flows into the gulf on its arabian side. bombastic quantities of fine scatter and, in places, quartz backbone, however, are blown into the ocean by prevailing northwest winds from the desert areas of the surrounding lands. Biological, biochemical, and chemical processes lead to the production of considerable calcium carbonate in the form of bony debris and fine mud, which mixes with this land-derived detritus. The deeper parts of the Persian Gulf adjacent to the iranian coast and the area around the Tigris-Euphrates delta are chiefly floored with grey-green muds rich in calcium carbonate. The shallower areas to the southwest are covered with whitish gray or speckled skeletal sands and fine carbonate mud. Often the seafloor has been hardened and turned to rock by the deposit of calcium carbonate from the warm, salty waters. Chemical precipitation is abundant in the coastal waters, and sands and muds are produced that mix with the bony debris of the local anesthetic sea life. These sediments are thrown up by the waves to form coastal islands that enclose lagoons. The high salinities and temperatures result in the haste of calcium sulfate and sodium chloride to form extensive coastal salt flats ( sebkhas ).
