2,436 articles
Sa Dec
Sa Dec (Sa Đéc), city in Dong Thap province, Mekong Delta, Vietnam; provincial-level city since 2013 (5,981 ha, 152,237 people); famous for its late-19th-century flower village and as the setting of Duras's The Lover.
Sabarmati River
Sabarmati River: west-flowing Indian river rising in the Aravalli hills, Rajasthan, 371 km to the Gulf of Khambhat; seasonal monsoon-fed, flows through Ahmedabad, site of the Sabarmati Riverfront project and heavy pollution.
Sabine River (Texas–Louisiana)
Sabine chiefly denotes the Sabine River (Río de Sabinas), a 555-mile Texas–Louisiana border river draining 9,756 square miles into Sabine Lake and the Gulf, Texas's largest-discharge river.
Sabis
Sabis names several ancient entities: Caesar's Gallic river of the 57 BCE Nervian battle (now identified with the Selle, not the Sambre), a Peutinger road station on Italy's Savio, a Carmanian river, and a South Arabian god in Pliny.
Sacheon (사천)
Sacheon (사천, 泗川市) is a rural-urban city in southwestern South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, formed in 1995 by merging Samcheonpo City and Sacheon County; Sacheon Bay splits it, with fisheries, aerospace industry, and 108,504 residents in 2024.
Sacramento River
Sacramento River: California's largest river, draining a 27,000-square-mile basin carrying about 30% of the state's surface water into the Delta; home to four Chinook salmon runs, including endangered winter-run, managed through Shasta Dam temperature control.
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta
Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta: inverted tidal freshwater delta and West Coast's largest estuary in central California; hub of California water system serving two-thirds of the state, with subsided leveed islands, SWP/CVP exports, Delta smelt controversy, and Delta Conveyance tunnel project.
Saginaw Bay
Saginaw Bay, a large shallow embayment of western Lake Huron in Michigan fed by the Saginaw River, known for its historic lumber era, walleye fishery, and Area of Concern contamination and restoration.
Saimaa
Saimaa (Saimen) is Finland's largest lake and Europe's fourth largest, a 4,400 km² labyrinth of about 14,000 islands in South Karelia and South Savo, home of the endangered Saimaa ringed seal and drained by the Vuoksi River into Lake Ladoga.
Sakami (lake)
Lac Sakami (Lake Sakami) is a 738 km² freshwater reservoir in Eeyou Istchee Baie-James, Quebec, enlarged from 533 km² to feed the Robert-Bourassa plant via diverted Eastmain and Opinaca rivers.
Sakhalin Gulf
Sakhalin Gulf (Sakhalinski Zaliv), a gulf of the Sea of Okhotsk between mainland Russia and the Schmidt Peninsula of northern Sakhalin Island, up to 160 km wide, ice-covered mid-November to late April, receiving most Amur River discharge.
Salado
Salado (Spanish, "salty") names several rivers in Arizona, Argentina, Chile, Texas, New Mexico, and Spain, plus the Salado archaeological culture (A.D. 1250–1450) of Arizona's Tonto Basin, known for polychrome pottery spread over 130,000 km².
Salar de Uyuni
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia's Andean salt flat of about 10,000 km² at 3,650 m altitude, is the world's largest salt flat and largest known lithium deposit, with state lithium production by YLB, major tourism, and acute water-footprint concerns.
Saldanha Bay
Saldanha Bay is a large natural bay on South Africa's west coast, about 100 km north of Cape Town, and the country's largest and deepest natural bay.
Salins-les-Thermes
Salins-les-Thermes, Savoie village and spa resort in the Tarentaise, administrative centre of Salins-Fontaine; renamed by 1926 decree, with saline thermal springs above 15 g/L discharging over 40 tonnes of salt daily.
Salish Sea
Salish Sea: official umbrella name (approved 2009-2010) for the inland waters of Juan de Fuca Strait, Strait of Georgia, and Puget Sound, spanning British Columbia and Washington; about 18,000 sq km, Coast Salish homeland, estuarine ecosystem of roughly 8.7 million people.
Salmon River (Idaho)
The Salmon River, Idaho's "River of No Return," is a 425-mile Snake River tributary through the second-deepest gorge on the continent, with 125 miles designated Wild and Scenic in 1980 and key habitat for threatened Snake River salmon and steelhead.
Salt evaporation pond
Salt evaporation pond, also called saltern or solar pond: shallow diked basins where seawater or brine evaporates to crystallize salt, concentrate lithium, or dispose of wastewater; salinity staged through pond chains with fractional crystallization.
Salt marsh
A salt marsh is a coastal wetland flooded and drained by tidal salt water, occurring worldwide and serving as nursery habitat for over 75% of fisheries species.
Salt pond
Salt pond: a shallow saline pond, natural or levee-enclosed (also called salt pan, saltern), where evaporation concentrates brine for salt harvesting; famous examples include San Francisco Bay's Cargill ponds and Maras, Peru.
Salton Sea
Salton Sea: shallow, saline terminal lake in southern California's Imperial and Riverside counties, California's largest lake, formed 1905-1907 by a Colorado River canal breach, sustained by farm runoff, shrinking and salinizing, with restoration and lithium-geothermal development.
Saltstraumen
Saltstraumen: tidal current between Straumøya and Godøya in Bodø, Norway, connecting Saltfjorden and Skjerstadfjorden; regarded as the world's strongest tidal current, with 20-knot peaks, 10 m whirlpools, and a 24.7 km² marine protected area.
Salween (river, Myanmar)
Salween (Nu Jiang in China, Thanlwin in Myanmar), a 2,820 km transboundary river from the Tibetan Plateau through Yunnan, Shan, Karenni, and Karen States to the Andaman Sea; over 10 million people, 16 ethnic groups, undammed main channel.
Samar Sea
Samar Sea, small semi-enclosed Philippine sea between southern Luzon and Eastern Visayas, bordered by Samar, Leyte, Masbate; 3,870 sq km, overfished since the 1980s, site of first Philippine red tide in 1983.
Sambhar Lake
Sambhar Lake (Shakambhari Jheel), Rajasthan's hypersaline wetland southwest of Jaipur, is India's largest inland salt lake, a Ramsar site producing about 9% of India's salt and a major flamingo wintering ground now shrinking from groundwater over-extraction.
Samoas
Samoas (FEOW ecoregion 823) is a freshwater ecoregion of the Oceanic Islands type covering the Samoan archipelago in both Samoa and American Samoa, delineated for its endemic fish fauna including Kuhlia salelea and Stiphodon hydroreibatus.
Samphire
Samphire, also called Saint Peter's herb, names two unrelated salty coastal plants eaten as vegetables: the marsh glassworts Salicornia and Sarcocornia, and rock samphire of sea cliffs.
San Bernardino Strait
San Bernardino Strait separates Samar from southeastern Luzon in the Philippines, linking the Philippine Sea with the Samar Sea. Sill depth 80 m; Manila Galleon route; Kurita's 1944 Leyte Gulf passage.
San Diego Bay
San Diego Bay is a crescent-shaped natural harbor in southern California, 18 miles long behind the Silver Strand. Entered by Cabrillo in 1542, settled in 1769, managed since 1962 by the Port of San Diego, and home to the Navy's Third Fleet.
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas, a 1,600-square-mile tidal estuary where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers meet the Pacific through the Golden Gate, shaped by ice-age filling, Gold Rush sediment, and modern restoration.