Kola Bay or Murmansk Fjord is a 57-km-long fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

 of the Barents Sea

Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

 that cuts into the northern part of the Kola Peninsula

Kola Peninsula

The Kola Peninsula is a peninsula in the far northwest of Russia. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely to the north of the Arctic Circle and is washed by the Barents Sea in the north and the White Sea in the east and southeast...

. It is up to 7 km wide and has a depth of 200 to 300 metres. The Tuloma

Tuloma River

The Tuloma River is a river in Murmansk Oblast in Russia. With a drainage basin of 21,500 km² and an average discharge at 255 m³/s, the Tuloma is one of the biggest rivers in northern Fennoscandia....

 and Kola River

Kola River

Kola is a river on the Kola Peninsula i Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It is 83 km long, with a drainage basin of 3,850 km². The river flows out of Lake Kolozero north into the Kola Bay of the Barents Sea, some 10 km south of Murmansk. The neighbouring Tuloma River has its mouth just one...

s discharge into the bay.

The eastern shore is craggy and precipitous, the western one is comparatively level. The ports of Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast, Russia. It serves as a seaport and is located in the extreme northwest part of Russia, on the Kola Bay, from the Barents Sea on the northern shore of the Kola Peninsula, not far from Russia's borders with Norway and Finland...

 and Severomorsk

Severomorsk

Severomorsk is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located about north of Murmansk along the Kola Bay. Population: This is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. Severomorsk has the largest drydock on the Kola Peninsula....

 sit on the east side; on the west side of the bay is the port of Polyarny

Polyarny

Polyarny is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, situated on the outermost western side of the Kola Bay. Population: -History:It was founded in 1896 and named Alexandrovsk in honor of Tsar Alexander III. Town status was granted to it on , 1899...

.

Semidiurnal tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s in the Murmansk Fjord are as high as 4 metres. In winter, the southern part of the bay may be covered in ice.