Cathy Decourcey, age 12, of Annapolis, Md., for her question:

HOW IS A CAPE FORMED?

A cape is a headland, cliff or point of land that projects prominently into a lake, sea or ocean. Tips of islands, such as Cape Race in Newfoundland, and continents, such as Cape Aguihas in Africa, are good places to find capes.

Capes, which can also be called points, heads or promontories, can be formed one of four ways:

1. Offshore bars or barrier beaches occasionally form points projecting far into the sea. They apparently result from converging shore currents depositing sandy materials in shallow  mater. Cape Hatteras, N.C., is an example.

2. River deposits may accumulate in shallow offshore waters until a point of land has been created, as at Cape Gracias a Dios, Honduras.

3. Cape Cod in Massachusetts is an example of a cape formed by rocks, .graveis and sands deposited along the margins of a continental glacier.

4. Huge rock cliffs, which withstand wave erosionn better than softer coastal material, may also slowly project away from the shoreline to form headlands. Australians Cape York is an example.