Inland sea

[3] Geologic engineers Heinrich Ries and Thomas L. Watson say an inland sea is merely a very large lake.

[2] Rydén, Migula, and Andersson[4] and Deborah Sandler of the Environmental Law Institute add that an inland sea is "more or less" cut off from the ocean.

He defined an epeiric sea as a shallow body of water whose bottom is within the wave base (e.g., where bottom sediments are no longer stirred by the wave above), [6] as one with limited connection to an ocean,[7][8][4] and as simply shallow.

The Great Lakes, despite being completely fresh water, have been referred to as resembling or having characteristics like inland seas from a USGS management perspective.

[15][16] Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf.