877 articles
Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea (Waddenzee, Wattenmeer) is the world's largest unbroken intertidal sand and mud flat system, over 500 km along the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark coasts; a 1,143,403 ha UNESCO World Heritage site (2009, extended 2014) vital for 10-12 million migratory birds yearly.
Wager Bay
Wager Bay, Nunavut, a bay on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay, Canada; shores of Ukkusiksalik National Park; site of a 1925 Hudson's Bay Company post and 1742 Middleton exploration.
Walker circulation
Walker circulation: the zonal atmospheric overturning loop over the equatorial Pacific, named for Gilbert Walker. Rising air over the western warm pool, sinking over the eastern Pacific; strengthened since 1979 but projected to weaken under greenhouse warming.
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) is Namibia's principal deep-water port city on the Atlantic coast. British-annexed 1878, transferred to Namibia 1994; gateway via the Trans-Kalahari Corridor to landlocked SADC trade.
Walvis Ridge
Walvis Ridge: ~3,300 km aseismic seamount chain in the Southeast Atlantic from the Namibian margin to Tristan da Cunha and Gough, the Tristan-Gough hotspot track beginning with the ~132 Ma Paraná-Etendeka flood basalts, paired with the Rio Grande Rise.
Weber Basin
Weber Basin (Weber Deep, Banda Trench) is a 7.2-km-deep arcuate forearc basin in the eastern Banda Sea, Indonesia, Earth's deepest ocean floor outside trenches, formed by Banda detachment extension and dynamic topography.
Weddell Gyre
The Weddell Gyre is the largest Southern Ocean subpolar gyre, a clockwise circulation spanning about 5.6 million km2 from the Antarctic Peninsula to 30 degrees E, transporting roughly 51-56 Sv and feeding Antarctic Bottom Water formation.
Weddell Polynya
The Weddell Polynya was a huge open-water hole in the winter sea ice of the Weddell Sea near Maud Rise, present 1974–1976, averaging 250,000 km², maintained by deep-ocean convection; smaller Maud Rise polynyas recurred in 2016–2017.
Weddell Sea (landform)
Weddell Sea, large ice-covered embayment of the Southern Ocean named for James Weddell; site of the Weddell Gyre, Antarctic Bottom Water formation, Maud Rise polynyas, and a proposed 2.2 million km2 CCAMLR marine protected area.
Weddell Sea Bottom Water
Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW) is the cold, dense deepest water mass of the Weddell Gyre, formed by mixing Ice Shelf Water plumes with Warm Deep Water; a precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water, produced at roughly 3–8 × 10^6 m³/s and exported via the western boundary current.
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea (Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas): Philippine government name, set by Administrative Order No. 29 of 5 September 2012, for western maritime areas including the Luzon Sea, Kalayaan Island Group, and Bajo de Masinloc, upheld by the 2016 arbitral award.
Western Interior Seaway
Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway or Niobraran Sea: a shallow epeiric sea splitting North America into Laramidia and Appalachia from Jurassic to Paleocene, from Gulf of Mexico to Arctic, leaving coal, oil, and chalk deposits.
Western Port
Western Port is a tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, about 60 km southeast of Melbourne, a Ramsar wetland (site 267, listed 1982) of 59,956 hectares famed for migratory shorebirds, mangroves, seagrass, and saltmarsh.
Whalers Bay
Whalers Bay, Deception Island, South Shetland Islands: caldera bay and Antarctic Treaty HSM 71, site of the Norwegian Hektor whaling station (1912-1931), British Base B, and a geothermal shore visited by over 15,000 tourists yearly.
Whenuanuipapa Plain
Whenuanuipapa Plain: undersea plain in the South Pacific off eastern New Zealand, between East Cape and Mahia Peninsula, in the GEBCO gazetteer (UFI 9092933); name means 'a large tract of land'.
Whirlwind Inlet
Whirlwind Inlet, an inlet on the Bowman Coast, Antarctic Peninsula, between Cape Northrop and Tent Nunatak; fed by Flint, Demorest, Matthes, and Chamberlin Glaciers; named by Wilkins in 1928 after the Wright Whirlwind engine; a foehn-jet site on Larsen C.
White Sea (Белое море)
The White Sea (Белое море) is a semi-landlocked Russian Arctic sea connected to the Barents Sea, with seasonal ice, low salinity from river discharge, dominant tides, and the historic port of Arkhangelsk.
Whitefish Bay
Whitefish Bay: the large southeastern bay of Lake Superior between Michigan and Ontario, outlet to the St. Mary's River, notorious for shipwrecks including the Edmund Fitzgerald; also a Wisconsin village and other namesakes.
Wild Atlantic Way
Wild Atlantic Way: 2,500 km signposted coastal touring route on Ireland's west coast from Donegal to Kinsale, launched by Fáilte Ireland in 2014; 180 Discovery Points, about €3 billion annual revenue and 35,000 jobs.
Wildlife of the Maldives
Wildlife of the Maldives: plants and animals of the 1,192-island Indian Ocean archipelago; 250+ coral and 1,100+ fish species, whale sharks, manta rays, endemic birds and fish, and reefs threatened by recurrent bleaching.
Wilhelmina Bay
Wilhelmina Bay is a bay on the Danco Coast of the west Antarctic Peninsula, about 15 miles wide, known for humpback whales feeding on krill each autumn.
Wilkins Sound
Wilkins Sound is a sound in the Bellingshausen Sea off the Antarctic Peninsula, between Alexander, Charcot, Latady, and Rothschild islands, named 1961 for explorer Sir Hubert Wilkins and largely filled by the retreating Wilkins Ice Shelf.
Woodlark Basin
Woodlark Basin: small ~500-km ocean basin between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands where seafloor spreading began ~6 Ma and propagates westward at ~14 cm/yr into continental crust while its eastern end subducts beneath the Solomon arc.
Wouri Estuary
The Wouri Estuary is a large mangrove-fringed estuary on Cameroon's Atlantic coast, where the Wouri River discharges near Douala and hosts the country's largest port.
Wright Inlet
Wright Inlet, also called Wright, ensenada, is an ice-filled inlet on the Lassiter Coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica, between Cape Wheeler and Cape Little, photographed in 1940 and subject to episodic ice-tongue loss.
Wynniatt Bay
Wynniatt Bay, a bay on northwestern Victoria Island, Northwest Territories, Canada (72°45′N 111°00′W, NTS 078B13). Named for Robert Wynniatt, who reached it in 1851 during McClure's Investigator expedition; official since 1947.
Yamato Basin
Yamato Basin, back-arc basin in the southeastern Sea of Japan (Japan Sea), one of three sub-basins with 12-16 km thick oceanic-type crust formed 16-21 Ma by back-arc extension behind the Japan arcs.
Yana Bay
Yana Bay (Янский залив), a gulf of the Laptev Sea in the Sakha Republic, Russia, receives the 872 km Yana River and its ~10,200 km² delta; ice-covered about nine months a year, with thermal-abrasional permafrost coasts.
Yanbu (ينبع)
Yanbu (ينبع) is a Red Sea port city in Saudi Arabia's Madinah Region: historic pilgrim port for Madinah, planned industrial city under RCJY since 1975, and diving destination, population 258,777 (2022 census).
Yap Trench
Yap Trench (ヤップ海溝), western Pacific trench on the Philippine Sea Plate's southeastern boundary, where the Caroline Plate subducts; ~700 km long, up to 8,946 m deep, marked by Caroline Ridge collision, no active volcanism, and slow convergence.