Hel Peninsula—A Distinctive Spit on the Polish Baltic Coast

The Hel Peninsula is one of the most geomorphologically interesting landforms on the Polish coast. It is a sandy barrierBarrier that divides the Gulf of Gdańsk from Puck Bay and Puck LagoonLagoon. Its head is near the town of Władysławowo and continues southeast into the centre of the Gulf of Gdańsk. It is unique due to its length (35 km long), the volume of sediments, and the depth of the basin (60 m bsl) that it is prograding into. The Hel Peninsula is a classic continuation spitSpit with the erosional neck and the accumulative hook. The neck is narrow, from 150 up to 300 m, low-lying, up to a few metres above sea levelSea level, relatively flat, with unvaried relief. The hook is from 1 to 3 km wide and covered by well-developed coastal dunes (up to 22 m asl). The shape of older dune formations indicates previous stages of hook development.