877 articles
Kyushu-Palau Ridge
Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR), also Palau-Kyushu Ridge, a ~2,600 km remnant intra-oceanic arc on the Philippine Sea floor from Kyushu to Palau, split from the proto-IBM arc by back-arc spreading; 6–12 km thick crust, subducting beneath Kyushu.
Labrador Current
Labrador Current: cold, low-salinity polar-origin current flowing southeastward along Baffin Island, Labrador, and Newfoundland; seasonal transports of 5-17 Sv; joins the Gulf Stream to form the North Atlantic Current.
Labrador Sea
The Labrador Sea is a North Atlantic marginal sea between Labrador, Greenland, and Newfoundland, the main formation site of Labrador Sea Water through winter deep convection reaching 500–2,500 m, feeding the AMOC and deep-ocean oxygen and carbon uptake.
Laccadive Sea
The Laccadive Sea, also called the Lakshadweep Sea, is a body of water in the northern Indian Ocean bordering India, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.
Lake Merritt
Lake Merritt is a tidal lagoon in downtown Oakland, California, dammed in 1869 and named for Mayor Samuel Merritt; designated in 1870 as North America's first wildlife refuge, it remains a tidal estuary with restricted channel flow and ongoing water quality restoration.
Lake Piso
Lake Piso (also Lake Pisu, Fisherman's Lake): Liberia's largest natural lagoon, in Grand Cape Mount County near Robertsport; first Ramsar site (no. 1306, 2003, 76,091 ha), Multiple Use Reserve, chimpanzees, mangroves, Vai homeland.
Lallemand Fjord
Lallemand Fjord, the largest embayment on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (66°50′–67°20′S), named by Charcot's 1909 expedition for Charles Lallemand; hosts the Müller Ice Shelf and a key Holocene paleoclimate sediment record showing deglaciation before 8000 yr BP, a mid-Holocene optimum, and a Little Ice Age ice shelf advance.
Langeled pipeline
The Langeled pipeline is a Norwegian subsea gas pipeline carrying gas from Nyhamna, via Sleipner, to Easington, England; it was the world's longest at completion in 2006.
Laptev Sea
The Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean off Siberia, between the Taymyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Islands, renamed in 1935 for the Laptev brothers.
Larsen Channel
Larsen Channel is a 1-3 mile wide strait between d'Urville and Joinville Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, discovered in December 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and named for Captain C.A. Larsen of the ship Antarctic.
Larsen Inlet
Larsen Inlet, also Ensenada Larsen, is an ice-filled inlet between Sobral Peninsula and Cape Longing on the Nordenskjöld Coast, Graham Land, Antarctica; charted by C.A. Larsen in 1893, renamed after a 1947 FIDS survey, its ice shelf collapsed in 1989.
Lau Basin
The Lau Basin is a back-arc basin in the southwest Pacific Ocean behind the Tonga Arc, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Australian Plate.
Laubeuf Fjord
Laubeuf Fjord (Fiord Laubeuf, Seno Laubeuf) is a 25-mile-long Antarctic sound between Adelaide Island and the Loubet Coast, charted by Charcot in 1909 and named for engineer Maxime Laubeuf.
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.
Lehrke Inlet
Lehrke Inlet, also Lehrke Bay, is an ice-filled inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica, between Cape Boggs and Cape Sharbonneau, discovered by the USAS in 1940 and named for Lester Lehrke of the Bear.
Lemaire Channel
The Lemaire Channel, nicknamed Kodak Gap, is an 11 km narrow passage in Antarctica between Booth Island and the Kiev Peninsula, known for mirror-calm, scenic waters.
Lessepsian migration
Lessepsian migration, or Erythrean invasion, is the one-way movement of Red Sea marine species into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal (opened 1869), named after Ferdinand de Lesseps; over 400 multicellular species and 100 fish species have crossed.
Leukimma Pr.
Leukimma Pr. (Λευκίμμη, Leucimme) is an ancient promontory of Corcyra (Corfu), the modern Akra Lefkimis on the island's southeast coast; named by Thucydides, Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny, and site of the 435 BC Corcyraean naval victory trophy over Corinth.
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf: gulf in Eastern Visayas, Philippines, between Leyte and Samar islands, 2,724 sq km; site of the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and of Typhoon Haiyan's 2013 storm surge.
Liddon Gulf
Liddon Gulf, also Kangikhokyoak, is a 64-mile inlet on the southwest coast of Melville Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, named in 1820 by Parry for Lieutenant Matthew Liddon of HMS Griper.
Ligurian Sea
Ligurian Sea (Mar Ligure), IHO sea area in the northwestern Mediterranean between Ventimiglia, La Spezia, and Corsica; deep basin with cyclonic gyre, Liguro-Provençal Current, 454 fish species, and warming of about 0.7 °C since 1948.
Lillebælt
Lillebælt (Little Belt), Danish strait between Jutland/Als and Funen/Ærø, ~130 km long, deepest ~80 m at Marens Hul; Ramsar site 154, Natura 2000 no. 112, Naturpark Lillebælt, dense porpoise population, marine naturnationalpark from 2026.
Liman (landform)
Liman: a coastal lagoon formed where a sand bar partially bars a drowned river mouth, common on the Black Sea coast; from Turkish liman 'port', from Greek limēn 'bay'.
Lincoln Sea
Lincoln Sea: Arctic Ocean marginal sea off northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island, head of Nares Strait. A Last Ice Area stronghold of thick multi-year ice, bifurcation of Canadian and Eurasian Basin outflow waters.
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 gulfs
Gulfs: large sea inlets into land, larger than bays and smaller than seas, from Greek kolpos. Covers definition, etymology, notable gulfs, and the Persian/Arabian Gulf and Gulf of America naming disputes.
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 oil and gas fields of the North Sea
The oil and gas fields of the North Sea are offshore petroleum deposits developed since the late 1960s by the UK, Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark.
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.