Sediments from various rivers release thick tan sediments off the coast of France into the Bay of Biscay (left) and the English Channel (above).
Along the west coast, these sediments come from the Dordogne and Garonne Rivers, released through the Gironde Estuary near Bordeaux (lower right quadrant), and from the Loire River, whose mouth is located at St Nazaire, near Nantes. With a length of 1,013 kilometres (629 mi), the Loire is the longest river in France.
Moving northward from the mouth of the Loire, the Couesnon River is visible releasing sediments on France’s north coast in an estuary at Mont Saint-Michel. Finally, the mouth of the River Seine can be seen by Le Havre, near the upper right corner, spilling sediments into the Bay of the Seine in the English Channel.