borne by another, Connecticut's Coast experiences diminished winds and waves. As a result, Connecticut has a low-energy coastline.

An additional factor in controlling wave heights is the limit placed on fetch by the narrowness of the Sound. Fetch is the distance over which wind blows unobstructed across water; the longer the fetch, the higher the waves. The south shore of Long Island is pounded by waves with a fetch of hundreds or thousands of miles; Rhode Island's coast, which lies east of Long Island's protective barricade, also experiences the full fury of storm waves. But in Connecticut, fetch is limited to a few tens of miles, and waves are consequently smaller.

The high-energy coastlines of Rhode Island's and Long Island's south shores look quite different from Connecticut's low-energy coast. Instead of a jagged coastline like that of Connecticut, the high-energy coasts have a straight border of barrier beaches, long streamers of sand separated from the mainland by a tidal wetland. Because a terminal moraine runs along Rhode Island's coast and because Long Island is a terminal moraine, a lot of loose glacial sediment sits piled on these two shores. The wind and waves of a big storm pick up the loose sediment and strew it all along the shoreline, building the beautiful barrier beaches for which Long Island and Rhode Island are famous. If the terminal moraine did not run on shore but instead continued offshore, Rhode Island would likely have a coastline similar to Connecticut's. Both states have a coastal slope, but in Rhode Island the barrier beaches have smeared out the jagged coastline that the Coastal Slope would otherwise have produced. In Connecticut, the shelter of Long Island and the lack of a good sand supply have preserved the jag. The political boundary between the two states precisely coincides with the changeover from Connecticut's indented, sheltered coast to Rhode Island's stormy barrier beaches.

Despite the protection provided by Long Island Sound, Connecticut's Coast is not without its beaches. If Connecticut's beaches were all strung together into one, that beach would be 36 miles long. Most of the beaches are small, but a few extend for a mile or two. There are three general types: pocket beaches, spits, and tombolos. Pocket beaches are crescent-shaped stretches of sand tucked between two headlands; a good

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