Introduction
The coast of Nigeria is about 850 km long. It has a hot, wet climate, with an annual rainfall of at least 3,500 mm. There are two rainy seasons (May–July and October–November) and a relatively dry season (NE trade winds) from December to May. During the wet seasons moisture-laden southwest winds from the Atlantic Ocean produce copious rainfall, which makes places like Calabar, Bonny Town and Port Harcourt among the rainiest in the world. Temperature ranges from 20°C to 35°C, and humidity is persistently high, ranging from 70% at Lagos to over 80% at Calabar.
Mean spring tide range increases eastward from Lagos (1.0 m) to the estuaries of the Imo and Cross rivers (2.6 m and 3.0 m respectively). Brackish water spreads far inland, extending to the apex of the Niger delta near Onitsha, about 220 km from the open ocean. Bonny Town on the east coast of the Niger delta has a tide range of 1.9 m.
The Nigerian coast is characterised by strong wave action. The strong southwest...
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Usoro, E. (2010). Nigeria. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_171
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