877 articles
Molloy Deep
Molloy Deep, formally Molloy Hole, is the deepest point of the Arctic Ocean at about 5,550 m, a circular depression in the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, first dived by Victor Vescovo in 2019.
Molucca Sea
Molucca Sea, marginal sea of the western Pacific in eastern Indonesia between Sulawesi and Halmahera; about 200,000 km², maximum depth 4,810 m; site of an active arc-arc collision with double-verging subduction of the Molucca Sea Plate and frequent earthquakes.
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.
Montara oil spill
Montara oil spill: 2009 Timor Sea well blowout at PTTEP's Montara platform off Western Australia, releasing about 4.7 million liters of crude over 74 days; Australia's largest offshore-platform spill and third largest overall.
Monterey Bay
Monterey Bay is a bay on central California's Pacific coast, protected as the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (designated 1992). Monterey Submarine Canyon, upwelling, and hundreds of shipwrecks distinguish it.
Moray Firth
The Moray Firth is Scotland's largest estuarine embayment (5,230 km²) on the North Sea coast between Duncansby Head and Fraserburgh, home to the North Sea's only resident bottlenose dolphin population, protected by a 2005 Special Area of Conservation.
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Море, Russian for "sea," is the Russian-language term for salt water smaller than an ocean and generally near a continent, as opposed to the land.
Morecambe Bay
Morecambe Bay is a large, shallow, sandy bay on the north-west coast of England, spanning Cumbria and Lancashire; it is the second-largest embayment in the UK after the Wash.
Morton Strait
Morton Strait, also historically called Straits of Despair or Hell's Gate, is a hazardous NW-SE strait in the South Shetland Islands between Byers Peninsula, Rugged Island, and Snow Island, charted by sealers and approved as a name in 1953.
Mozambique Basin
Mozambique Basin: a sedimentary basin under central and southern Mozambique's coastal plain and shelf, formed during Gondwana break-up, holding about 6 Tcf of gas, and the deep oceanic basin of the southwest Indian Ocean west of the Mozambique Ridge.
Mozambique Channel
Mozambique Channel: Indian Ocean arm between Mozambique and Madagascar, about 400 km wide at its narrowest. Known for southward-propagating anticyclonic eddies feeding the Agulhas Current, rich coral biodiversity, tanker shipping, gas reserves, and Franco-Malagasy island disputes.
Murchison Sound
Murchison Sound, a sound in northwestern Greenland forming the northern entrance to Inglefield Gulf in Baffin Bay, named after geologist Sir Roderick Murchison; shallow (<200 m) narwhal and walrus habitat near McCormick Bay and Cape Robertson.
Murray Ridge
Murray Ridge is a chain of bathymetric highs in the northern Arabian Sea forming part of the India–Arabia plate boundary with Dalrymple Trough; it is underlain by continental crust. Distinct from a British Columbia ultramafite ridge and a Sinemurian formation in the Northwest Territories.
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.
Nagaoka Ridge
Nagaoka Ridge: elongated undersea ridge in the North Pacific Ocean (about 24.04 N, 144.27 E), 80 x 20 km, relief 3,536 m; discovered 1987 by survey vessel Takuyo, named for geologist Shinji Nagaoka.
Nansen Basin
Nansen Basin: southern abyssal sub-basin of the Eurasia Basin, Arctic Ocean, between the Gakkel Ridge and the Barents-Kara margin; ultra-slow spreading origin, sediments up to 4.5 km, Atlantic Water inflow.
Nantucket Inlet
Nantucket Inlet, Antarctica (Nantucket, ensenada): ice-filled Weddell Sea inlet on Palmer Land's east coast, 6 by 13 miles, between Bowman and Smith Peninsulas, fed by Johnston Glacier.
Nares Strait
Nares Strait, between Ellesmere Island, Canada, and Greenland, is the northernmost outflow gateway of the Arctic Ocean, linking the Lincoln Sea to Baffin Bay with about 0.8 Sv southward flow, winter ice arches, and the North Water polynya.
Natural resources of the Arctic
Natural resources of the Arctic: petroleum, minerals, and fisheries north of the Arctic Circle across eight countries. USGS estimates 90 billion barrels oil and 1,669 tcf gas, mostly offshore and Russian, largely undeveloped due to cost, climate, and regulation.
Nazca Ridge
Nazca Ridge: volcanic aseismic ridge on the Nazca plate, ~1,100 km long, part of the Salas y Gómez hotspot trail (1.4-30 Ma lavas), now subducting flat-slab beneath southern Peru; 1996 Mw 8.0 earthquake; high marine endemism.
Nelson Strait
Nelson Strait (Nelson, estrecho) is a strait in the South Shetland Islands between Nelson and Robert Islands at 62°20'S 59°18'W, formerly called Harmony Strait, King George's Strait, and Parrys Straits.
Neptunes Bellows
Neptunes Bellows (Fuelles de Neptuno) is the roughly 230 m wide, 25 m deep strait between Fildes Point and Entrance Point, Deception Island, the sole ship entrance through the caldera wall into Port Foster, guarded by submerged Ravn Rock.
Neumayer Channel
Neumayer Channel is a 16-mile NE-SW Antarctic channel in the Palmer Archipelago separating Anvers Island from Wiencke and Doumer Islands, first charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1898 and named for Georg von Neumayer.
New Bedford Inlet
New Bedford Inlet is a large ice-filled embayment between Cape Kidson and Cape Brooks on the Lassiter Coast, Palmer Land, Antarctica; discovered by USAS air photography in December 1940 and named after New Bedford, Massachusetts.
New Britain Trench
New Britain Trench: oceanic trench in the Solomon Sea, Papua New Guinea, also called Bougainville-New Britain Trench. Solomon Sea Plate subducts northward at 80-150 mm/yr; ~840 km long, up to 9,103 m deep, PNG's most seismically active source.
New York Harbor
New York Harbor is the tidal estuary and natural deepwater port at the Hudson River mouth shared by New York and New Jersey. Busiest world harbor by 1865; today hosts NOAA NYOFS/PORTS navigation systems and major oyster and habitat restoration.
Newfoundland Basin
Newfoundland Basin: deep-water sedimentary basin of the northwest Atlantic seaward of the Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, Canada; a magma-poor nonvolcanic margin conjugate to Iberia, with serpentinized transitional basement and Mesozoic seafloor spreading history.
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.
Nine-dash line (九段线)
The nine-dash line (九段线) is the U-shaped demarcation on Chinese maps claiming most of the South China Sea. Drawn as an eleven-dash line in 1947, it was ruled to have no legal basis for historic rights by the 2016 UNCLOS arbitration tribunal.
Ninety East Ridge
The Ninety East Ridge is a volcanic ridge in the eastern Indian Ocean running about 5,600 km along the 90°E meridian, formed by the Kerguelen hotspot.