Minas Basin, Inlet in Nova Scotia, Canada

Minas Basin is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, split by Cape Split and Cape Sharp into four parts: Minas Channel, Central Minas Basin, Cobequid Bay and Southern Bight. Its northern edge carries the Basalt Headlands, a chain of high basalt bluffs and islands. The Shubenacadie, Cornwallis, Avon, Gaspereau and Salmon rivers empty into it.

French Acadian settlers arrived in the late 1600s and built extensive dike systems around the inlet. These structures turned tidal marshes into farmable land and allowed permanent communities to develop.

The name derives from Samuel de Champlain, who in 1607 named the nearby harbour Port of Mines for the copper seams at Cape d'Or; "Les Mines" later passed to the upper bay and was Anglicized to Minas Basin. Mi'kmaq tradition links the god Glooscap to Cape Blomidon and the Five Islands.

The water is a dense, nearly opaque reddish brown from suspended silt churned by the currents. At mid-tide, currents exceed 8 knots, and the 5-kilometre-wide channel north of Cape Split carries about 4 cubic kilometres per hour. Near Cape d'Or, the colliding currents form the Dory Rips.

Burntcoat Head witnesses some of the planet's most powerful tidal movements. The water level swings dramatically and creates currents far stronger than most other coastal areas.