<descriptor thcode="62"><thesaurus thcode="62" name="Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard" scope="Categories of ecosystems for coastal, estuarine, and marine environments." creator="FGDC" rights="public domain" date="2017-05-10" codetype="alpha" prefix="cmecs" uri="https://www2.usgs.gov/science/CMECS" tblname="cmecs" root_code="root" contact="pschweitzer"><category><term thcode="25" code="16" name="hierarchical" parent="11" scope="Substantive broader-narrower relationships exist among the terms."/><term thcode="25" code="16" name="hierarchical" parent="11" scope="Substantive broader-narrower relationships exist among the terms."/></category><altlabel><altlabel>CMECS</altlabel><altlabel>CMECS</altlabel><altlabel>Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)</altlabel><altlabel>Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)</altlabel></altlabel></thesaurus><term thcode="62" code="GC-109" name="Inlet" parent="GC-011" scope="Geoform: Inlets are narrow constrictions through which water flows. The term is commonly used to describe gaps between barrier islands that allow tidal exchange with the adjacent?more enclosed?bays, lagoons, or marshes."/><bt><term thcode="62" code="GC-011" name="Geologic" parent="GC-C052" scope="Geoform Origin: Geologic geoforms are formed by the abiotic processes of uplift, erosion, volcanism, deposition, fluid seepage, and material movement. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="GC-C052" name="Geoform (levels 1 and 2 subcomponents)" parent="GC-C005"/><term thcode="62" code="GC-C005" name="Geoform" parent="root"/><term thcode="62" code="root" name="CMECS" scope="Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard: Category terms encompassing waters from the head of tide or inland incursion of ocean salinity to the splash zone of the coasts to the deepest portions of the oceans and the deep waters of the Great Lakes."/></bt><nt><term thcode="62" code="GC-111" name="Relict Tidal Inlet" parent="GC-109" scope="Geoform Type: A channel remnant that is left from a former tidal inlet. The channel was cut off or abandoned by infilling from migrating shore sediments."/><term thcode="62" code="GC-110" name="Tidal Inlet" parent="GC-109" scope="Geoform Type: Any inlet through which water alternately floods landward, with the rising tide, and ebbs seaward, with the falling tide (Jackson 1997)."/></nt></descriptor>