140 articles
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea, also called Mer celtique, is an arm of the northeast Atlantic south of Ireland and southwest of Wales and Cornwall, a productive shelf sea known for major fisheries.
Ceram Sea
Ceram Sea (Seram Sea, Laut Seram), a small Pacific sea in eastern Indonesia between Seram, Buru, and New Guinea's Bird's Head; IHO-defined, about 161,489 km², monsoon-driven, within the Coral Triangle.
Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea: Arctic marginal sea between Alaska and Russia's Chukchi Peninsula, linked to the Pacific by Bering Strait; shallow 0–50 m shelf carrying ~0.8–1.1 Sv of Pacific water northward, ice-covered about eight months a year, and warming rapidly.
Coral Sea
The Coral Sea is a southwestern Pacific marginal sea off northeastern Australia between the Great Barrier Reef, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, defined by the South Equatorial Current, rich marine life, and the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea, the first all-carrier-aircraft naval battle.
Daito Ridge
Daito Ridge (大東海嶺), also called Daito Mountains, is a 500-km-long east-west undersea remnant island arc at the northwestern end of the Philippine Sea plate, with 13-20 km thick Cretaceous arc crust, now subducting beneath the Ryukyu Trench.
Davis Sea
Davis Sea is a body of water off East Antarctica along Queen Mary Land and Wilhelm II Land, named by Douglas Mawson in 1912 for Captain John King Davis.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Deepwater Horizon oil spill: April 20, 2010 BP rig explosion and Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 and releasing 134 million gallons of oil; largest U.S. offshore spill, $20.8 billion settlement.
Dogger Bank
Dogger Bank: large shallow sandbank in the southern North Sea, largest in UK waters, SAC of 12,331 km², glacial moraine origin, also a major offshore wind farm site.
East China Sea
East China Sea: western Pacific marginal sea bounded by China, Taiwan, the Ryukyus, Kyushu, and Korea; 0.77 million km², Kuroshio transport 19–24 Sv, major fisheries, and 35% of global petroleum shipments (2023).
East Siberian Sea
East Siberian Sea (Восточно-Сибирское море), a shallow Arctic Ocean marginal sea between the New Siberian Islands and Wrangel Island; 913,000 km², mean depth 54 m, most ice-bound Russian Arctic sea, nearly 80% of world subsea permafrost.
Eastern Mediterranean
The Eastern Mediterranean is the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, covering the Adriatic, Ionian, Aegean, and Levantine Seas. A Tethys relict bordered by ten states, it has anti-estuarine circulation, giant offshore gas fields, and heavy Lessepsian invasions.
English Channel
The English Channel (La Manche) is the 560 km arm of the Atlantic between England and France, ending at the Strait of Dover; a megaflood-carved, heavily trafficked waterway with the 50 km Channel Tunnel and 153 marine protected areas.
Environmental issues of the Black Sea
The environmental issues of the Black Sea center on its anoxic, hydrogen sulfide deep waters, plus overfishing, eutrophication, the Mnemiopsis invasion, and war damage since 2022.
Firth
Firth: Scottish English term for a large estuary or long sea inlet, from Old Norse fjǫrthr (same root as fjord). Names include Firth of Forth, Clyde, Moray, Solway, Tay.
Fisheries of the North Sea
The fisheries of the North Sea are commercial fishing by about 7,000 vessels, landing around 1.5 million tonnes a year and managed jointly by the EU, UK, and Norway.
Flores Sea
Flores Sea (Laut Flores), Indonesian marginal sea between southern Sulawesi and Flores, Komodo, and Sumbawa; IHO East Indian Archipelago area of about 102,816 km², Flores Basin to 5,140 m, key Indonesian Throughflow pathway.
Flotta oil terminal
The Flotta oil terminal is a crude oil terminal on the island of Flotta in Orkney, Scotland, receiving North Sea oil by pipeline since 1977.
Foxe Basin
Foxe Basin: shallow Arctic inland sea in Nunavut, Canada, north of Hudson Bay between Baffin Island and Melville Peninsula; ~207,500 km², first-year ice most of the year, named for Luke Foxe (1631).
GIUK gap
The GIUK gap, or Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap, is the North Atlantic passage between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom through which ships and submarines from Arctic waters enter the Atlantic.
Greenland Sea
The Greenland Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean between eastern Greenland and the Norwegian Sea, bounded by the Fram Strait and the Denmark Strait.
Gulf Coast of the United States
Gulf Coast of the United States: the Texas-to-Florida coastline on the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America), a low-lying wetland region marked by hurricane hazard, the seasonal hypoxic dead zone, major oil and gas and marine economies, and large Deepwater Horizon restoration programs.
Gulf of Bothnia
Gulf of Bothnia, the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, comprising the Bothnian Bay, Quark, and Bothnian Sea; area 115,516 km2, salinity 0-7 psu, maximum postglacial land uplift 9 mm/yr, and good environmental status.
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeastern tropical Atlantic bay along West Africa from Liberia to Gabon, marked by seasonal coastal upwelling, fisheries, oil production, and the world's peak piracy zone in 2020.
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico (also officially styled Gulf of America by some U.S. agencies) is a 218,000-square-mile semi-enclosed Atlantic basin linked to the Caribbean by the Yucatan Channel, defined by the Loop Current, major hurricanes, and half of U.S. petroleum refining capacity.
Gulf of Oman
The Gulf of Oman, or Sea of Oman, is the 560-km-long arm of the Arabian Sea linking the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean, a deep monsoon-driven basin with seasonal coastal hypoxia and major oil shipping routes.
Gulf of St. Lawrence
Gulf of St. Lawrence (Golfe du Saint-Laurent): semi-enclosed Canadian sea opening via Cabot Strait and Strait of Belle Isle; Magdalen Shallows under 80 m; ~15% of Canadian fish catch; sea ice, warming, Cartier 1534.
Halmahera Sea
Halmahera Sea: quasi-confined marginal sea in eastern Indonesia between Halmahera Island and Irian Jaya, a secondary entry portal of the Indonesian Throughflow, with ENSO-linked variability, intense internal-wave mixing, and Coral Triangle coral biodiversity.
HELCOM
HELCOM (Helsinki Commission, Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission) is the intergovernmental body governing Baltic Sea marine environmental protection under the 1974/1992 Helsinki Convention, with ten Contracting Parties, the Baltic Sea Action Plan, and six-year HOLAS assessments.
Ionian Sea (Ιόνιο Πέλαγος)
The Ionian Sea (Ιόνιο Πέλαγος), between Italy and western Greece, is the Mediterranean's deepest sub-basin (5,121 m), key to basin ventilation, rated 'poor' in 2022 environmental status, with a planned 14,000 km2 Greek marine park.
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea separates Ireland from Great Britain, linking to the Atlantic via St. George's Channel and the North Channel. Key facts: glacial Irish Sea Ice Stream history, 1–2 m/s peak spring tidal currents, mud and gravel seabed, and major offshore wind development.