126 articles
Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation
The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) is a Pacific-wide pattern of decadal sea surface temperature variability resembling El Niño, first described by Power and colleagues in 1999.
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas
ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, CICTA) is the tuna RFMO for the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent seas, founded 1966, Madrid-based, 56 members, managing tunas, swordfish, billfish, and sharks.
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier (1491–1557), Saint-Malo navigator, made three voyages (1534, 1535–36, 1541–42) for Francis I, exploring the Gulf and River St. Lawrence, naming Canada, and founding Charlesbourg-Royal.
John Cabot
John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto, Zuan Chabotto), Venetian-born Italian navigator sailing for Henry VII of England from Bristol; his 1497 voyage made the first known European landfall in North America since the Norse, and his 1498 expedition vanished.
Katchatheevu (கச்சத்தீவு)
Katchatheevu (கச்சத்தீவு) is a small uninhabited island in the Palk Strait, placed under Sri Lankan sovereignty by a 1974 agreement and known for its St Anthony's festival.
Kermadec Ridge
The Kermadec Ridge is the active submarine volcanic arc east of New Zealand, part of the 2,500 km Tonga-Kermadec system formed by subduction of the Pacific plate.
Kon-Tiki expedition
The Kon-Tiki expedition (1947): Thor Heyerdahl and five crew crossed about 8,000 km from Callao, Peru to Raroia atoll in 101 days on a balsa-log raft, testing South American raft voyaging to Polynesia; the migration theory itself was rejected.
Kuril Basin
Kuril Basin, deep back-arc basin in the southern Sea of Okhotsk behind the Kuril island arc; fan-shaped, about 3,000 m deep, formed by Oligocene-Miocene back-arc spreading, and the mixing zone producing Okhotsk Sea Intermediate Water for North Pacific ventilation.
Leeuwin Current
The Leeuwin Current is the poleward-flowing eastern boundary current of the south Indian Ocean, carrying warm low-salinity water south along Western Australia to the Great Australian Bight, driven by the Indonesian Throughflow pressure gradient, peaking in austral winter at about 1.8 Sv.
List of Arctic expeditions
List of Arctic expeditions: chronological survey of polar-north exploration from Pytheas (ca 300 BCE) and Barents through Franklin's 1845 disaster, Nansen's Fram drift, Amundsen's 1903-06 Northwest Passage transit, the disputed 1909 Pole claims, and modern research voyages.
List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean
Overview of Atlantic Ocean islands: continental groups (Iceland, British Isles, Newfoundland, West Indies, Falklands) and oceanic volcanic archipelagos (Azores, Madeira, Canaries, Cape Verde, St Helena group, Bermuda, Fernando de Noronha), their formation and status.
List of islands in the Indian Ocean
Islands of the Indian Ocean, also called Indian Ocean archipelagos: about 2,000 islands from Madagascar and Seychelles to the Maldives, Chagos, and Cocos (Keeling), mostly coralline atolls by count but volcanic by area, many threatened by sea-level rise.
List of ships attacked by Somali pirates
Ships attacked by Somali pirates: merchant vessels, fishing boats, and dhows hijacked off the Horn of Africa. Over 1,000 attacks 2005–2011, a 2011 peak of 237, and a 2023–2026 resurgence seizing vessels including Honour 25, Sward, Eureka, Asana, Lutuf, and Sibu 1.
Marine life of the Indian Ocean
The marine life of the Indian Ocean is the fish, corals, mammals, and other fauna of the 70 million km² basin between Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the middle leg of the triangular Atlantic slave trade, carrying enslaved Africans to the Americas, 1526-1866; about 12.5 million embarked, 10.7 million survived, with roughly 15 percent average voyage mortality.
Mindelo
Mindelo is the port city and capital of the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde, an Atlantic archipelago off West Africa, often called the country's cultural capital.
Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean
The Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean was a paleo-ocean basin between the Siberian Craton and the North China-Amuria block that closed scissor-like from west to east during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic.
MV Wakashio oil spill
MV Wakashio oil spill: 2020 grounding of a Japanese-owned, Panamanian-flagged capesize bulker off Pointe d'Esny, Mauritius; about 1,000 tonnes of Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil spilled, the first major VLSFO spill, after a deliberate course deviation toward shore.
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are the southern island group of India's Andaman and Nicobar Union Territory: 22 islands, 1,841 km², home to the Shompen and Nicobarese tribes, the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, and the contested Great Nicobar Project.
North Indian Ocean
The North Indian Ocean is the northern portion of the Indian Ocean, comprising the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, whose currents reverse seasonally with the monsoon winds.
North Pacific Gyre
The North Pacific Gyre (North Pacific Subtropical Gyre) is a clockwise system of rotating currents bounded by the Kuroshio, California, and North Equatorial Currents; its convergent center traps floating plastic, forming the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
North Pacific Index
The North Pacific Index, or NP index, is a climate index measuring the strength of the winter Aleutian low, defined by Trenberth and Hurrell in 1994.
North Sentinel Island
North Sentinel Island: forested, ~60 sq km island in the Bay of Bengal, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India, home to the uncontacted Sentinelese; a tribal reserve with a 5 km exclusion zone under the 1956 PAT Regulation.
Ocean
The ocean is the interconnected salt-water body covering about 70% of Earth's surface, holding 97% of its water, absorbing roughly 30% of CO2 emissions and 93% of excess heat, and governed largely under UNCLOS.
Ocean temperature
Ocean temperature: seawater temperature from surface to depth, a key climate indicator. The ocean stores about 90% of excess heat; 2025 upper-2000 m ocean heat content set a record, up ~23 zettajoules over 2024.
Opening of the Atlantic Ocean
The opening of the Atlantic Ocean began as Pangaea rifted apart about 201 million years ago, with Central Atlantic seafloor spreading starting around 190 Ma.
Operation Highjump
Operation Highjump (officially the U.S. Navy Antarctic Developments Program, 1946-47), Task Force 68 under Byrd and Cruzen: 4,700 men, 13 ships, aerial photomapping of Antarctica, Little America IV, early withdrawal from Ross Sea pack ice.
Pacific decadal oscillation
Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO), related to the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), is a decadal-scale pattern of North Pacific sea surface temperature and pressure variability, defined by Mantua et al. 1997, with warm and cool phases affecting North American climate and fisheries.
Pacific hurricane
Pacific hurricane: a tropical cyclone in the eastern or central North Pacific reaching 74 mph winds; season May 15 to November 30, averaging 15 named storms, 8 hurricanes, 4 major hurricanes, boosted by El Niño.
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean, Earth's largest ocean, lies between the Americas and Asia-Australia, divided into North and South Pacific by convention. Key facts: Bering Strait is its only Arctic gateway (~1 Sv flow, rising since 1990), and IHO limits place its southern boundary at 60°S.