877 articles
Beaufort Sea
Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean marginal sea off northern Alaska and Canada, east of Point Barrow; home of the Beaufort Gyre, declining summer sea ice, a Canada–US boundary dispute, and contested oil and gas resources.
Beaufort's Dyke
Beaufort's Dyke: deep submarine trench (312 m max depth) in the North Channel of the Irish Sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland, a glacial tunnel valley used as the UK's main munitions sea dump, holding over 1 million tonnes of ordnance dumped 1945-1976.
Bellingshausen Sea (landform)
The Bellingshausen Sea is a Southern Ocean embayment west of the Antarctic Peninsula between Alexander and Thurston Islands, discovered in 1821 and named for Admiral Bellingshausen; its shelf is flooded by warm Circumpolar Deep Water driving rapid ice shelf melt and sea ice decline.
Bering Sea
The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean bounded by Russia, Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands, named for navigator Vitus Bering, who died there in 1741.
Bering Strait
Bering Strait: 44-mile-wide seaway between Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, and Cape Dezhneva, Siberia, linking the Bering Sea to the Chukchi Sea; named for Vitus Bering, who sailed it in 1728; key Arctic shipping chokepoint.
Bermuda
Bermuda, a self-governing British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic, is a limestone-capped volcanic seamount settled by the English in 1612, with an economy led by international business and tourism and a recent return to fiscal surplus.
Bermuda Rise
Bermuda Rise: broad midplate bathymetric swell (~10^6 km², ~500 m relief) in the western North Atlantic surrounding Bermuda; uplifted 47–40 Ma, no hotspot track, supported by a ~20 km underplated layer.
Bezrukov Ridge
Bezrukov Ridge is a submarine ridge in the Indian Ocean north of the Southwest Indian Ridge near the Melville Fracture Zone; discovered 2012 by R/V Akademik Nikolay Strakhov, named after Soviet marine geologist P. L. Bezrukov.
Bight
Bight: a long, gradual bend in a coastline forming a large open bay (Southern California Bight, New York Bight, Great Australian Bight, Bight of Benin); also the loop of a rope in seamanship, from Old English byht.
Bight of Benin
The Bight of Benin, or Bay of Benin, is a broad bay in the Gulf of Guinea between the Volta and Niger deltas, fronting Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria.
Bight of Biafra
The Bight of Biafra, officially the Bight of Bonny since 1975, is the easternmost bight of the Gulf of Guinea between the Niger River and Cape Lopez, a major Atlantic slave-trade embarkation region with ports at Bonny, Old Calabar, and New Calabar.
Bigo Bay
Bigo Bay (Bigo, bahía) is an 8 by 6 nautical mile bay on the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica, between Cape Garcia and Magnier Peninsula; named by John Rymill after Mount Bigo following the 1935-36 BGLE survey.
Bismarck Sea
Bismarck Sea, semi-enclosed equatorial sea off northeastern Papua New Guinea, bounded by the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, Manus). Former center of German New Guinea; back-arc basin with Manus Basin spreading, rich coral biodiversity, Solwara 1 seabed mine.
Bismarck Strait
Bismarck Strait (Bismarckstraße), Antarctic strait in the Palmer Archipelago between Anvers, Wiencke Islands and the Wilhelm Archipelago at 64°51'S 63°58'W; explored 1874 by Eduard Dallmann and named for Prince Otto von Bismarck.
Black Sea
The Black Sea, called Pontus Euxinus in antiquity, is a marginal sea between southeastern Europe and Anatolia, connected to the Mediterranean only through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.
Black Sea deluge hypothesis
Black Sea deluge hypothesis, or Noah's Flood hypothesis, proposed by Ryan and Pitman in 1997: an abrupt early Holocene Mediterranean inflow through the Bosporus flooding a freshwater Black Sea lake; contested by the gradualist Outflow Hypothesis.
Blake Plateau
The Blake Plateau is a submarine plateau off the southeastern United States between the continental shelf and the deep Atlantic, home to the largest known deep-sea coral reef habitat.
Blake Ridge
Blake Ridge, also Blake-Bahama Ridge, is a large bottom-current-built sediment drift off the southeastern United States at over 2,000 m depth, a major gas hydrate province drilled by ODP Leg 164 and named for the steamer Blake.
Boa Vista
Boa Vista is Cabo Verde's third-largest island (620 km²), a flat desert island in the Barlavento group with dunes, Sal Rei as its town, and two-thirds of the country's loggerhead turtle nesting.
Bode Verde Fracture Zone
Bode Verde Fracture Zone (BVFZ), South Atlantic fracture zone on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near 8–14°S, discovered by Brazil's hydrographic office; bounds the 7°–12°S ridge section with the Ascension Fracture Zone.
Bodega Bay
Bodega Bay, California: a Sonoma Coast bay and fishing town 67 miles north of San Francisco, named for 1775 explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, home to Bodega Harbor, Bodega Head, and UC Davis' Bodega Marine Laboratory.
Bohai Sea (渤海)
The Bohai Sea (渤海) is a shallow, semi-enclosed inland sea on China's northeast coast, bordered by Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, and Tianjin, and receiving the Yellow River's discharge.
Bohol Sea
Bohol Sea, also called the Mindanao Sea, a Philippine sea between Central Visayas and Northern Mindanao; a cetacean hotspot with 18 species including blue whales, a mobulid fishery ground, and a marine Key Biodiversity Area.
Boknafjord
Boknafjord (Boknafjorden) is a broad, open fjord in Rogaland, southwestern Norway, between Jæren and Karmøy; at 96 km it is Norway's fourth largest by area.
Bolata Cove
Bolata Cove (Болата) is a small crescent-shaped bay with a 300 m sandy beach near Balgarevo, north of Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria; the only sandy beach between Kavarna and Shabla, protected in Stepite and Natura 2000, managed by the Ministry of Tourism since 2025.
Bone Bay
Bone Bay, also Caleta Bone, is a rectangular bay on the northwest coast of Trinity Peninsula, Antarctic Peninsula, nearly 10 nautical miles wide between Notter Point and Cape Roquemaurel; charted by FIDS in 1948 and named for midshipman Thomas M. Bone.
Bonn Agreement (1969)
Bonn Agreement (1969): treaty signed at Bonn 9 June 1969, in force 9 August 1969, for cooperation against North Sea oil pollution; original parties Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Sweden, UK; replaced by 1983 oil-and-harmful-substances agreement.
Borders of the oceans
Borders of the oceans: conventional IHO limits (S-23, 1953; S-130 digital) versus physical fronts. Atlantic–Indian at Cape Agulhas 20°E, Indian–Pacific via Tasmania 146°55'E, Southern Ocean recognized 2023 at 60°S.
Börgen Bay
Börgen Bay, also Bahía Börgen, is a bay on the southeast coast of Anvers Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica, charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1898 and named for German astronomer Carl Börgen; site of the retreating William Glacier.
Bosporus
Bosporus (İstanbul Boğazı), the 30 km Turkish strait linking the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara through Istanbul; two-layer exchange flow, ~35 m sill, fluvial-faulting origin, Montreux Convention regime, three bridges.