page_title: King Sound
hierarchical_section_title: King Sound
caption_attribution_description: English: King Sound on the northwest coast of Australia is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 40 crew member on the International Space Station. The Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest, empties into the Sound, a large gulf in Western Australia (approximately 120 kilometers long). King Sound has the highest tides in Australia, in the range of 11-12 meters, the second highest in the world after the Bay of Fundy on the east coast of North America. The strong brown smudge at the head of the Sound contrasts with the clearer blue water along the rest of the coast. This is mud stirred up by the tides and also supplied by the Fitzroy River. The bright reflection point of the sun obscures the blue water of the Indian Ocean (top left). Just to the west of the Sound, thick plumes of wildfire smoke, driven by northeast winds, obscure the coastline. A wide field of "popcorn cumulus" clouds (right) is a common effect of daily heating of the ground surface.
context_page_description: King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about 120 km long, and averages about 50 km in width. The port town of Derby lies near the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the eastern shore of King Sound. King Sound has the highest tides in Australia, and amongst the highest in the world, reaching a maximum tidal range of 11.8 metres at Derby. The tidal range and water dynamic were researched in 1997–1998.
  Other rivers that discharge into the sound include the Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River and May River.
  King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and Cape Leveque to the West.
  The traditional owners and original inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians, namely the Nimanburu, Njulnjul, and Warwa peoples.
  The first European to explore the Sound was William Dampier who visited the region aboard Cygnet in 1688.
  Philip Parker King surveyed the coastline in 1821 and named the area Cygnet Bay.
  The area was later visited by John Stokes and John Wickham aboard HMS Beagle in 1838.
context_section_description: King Sound is a large gulf in northern Western Australia. It expands from the mouth of the Fitzroy River, one of Australia's largest watercourses, and opens to the Indian Ocean. It is about 120 km long, and averages about 50 km in width. The port town of Derby lies near the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the eastern shore of King Sound. King Sound has the highest tides in Australia, and amongst the highest in the world, reaching a maximum tidal range of 11.8 metres at Derby. The tidal range and water dynamic were researched in 1997–1998.
  Other rivers that discharge into the sound include the Lennard River, Meda River, Robinson River and May River.
  King Sound is bordered by the island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipelago to the East and Cape Leveque to the West.
  The traditional owners and original inhabitants of the area are Indigenous Australians, namely the Nimanburu, Njulnjul, and Warwa peoples.
  The first European to explore the Sound was William Dampier who visited the region aboard Cygnet in 1688.
  Philip Parker King surveyed the coastline in 1821 and named the area Cygnet Bay.
  The area was later visited by John Stokes and John Wickham aboard HMS Beagle in 1838. The Sound is named after the noted surveyor, Philip Parker King.
  In the 1880s it was one of the sites in the Kimberleys of a short-lived gold rush.
caption: King Sound from International Space Station
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2014:08:11 09:54:38", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "958", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5501", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1250", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:08:08 07:03:53", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:08:08 07:03:53", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "321491/31250", "EXIF ApertureValue": "290241/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "06", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "06", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "06", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4256", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2832", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "2053892", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[28, 70, 14/5, 14/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "28.0-70.0 mm f/2.8"}