2,436 articles
Battle of Drøbak Sound
The Battle of Drøbak Sound, fought on 9 April 1940 in the Oslofjord, saw Oscarsborg Fortress sink the German cruiser Blücher, flagship of the force sent to seize Oslo.
Battle of the Barents Sea
The Battle of the Barents Sea was a naval engagement on 31 December 1942 in which British escorts drove off a stronger German force, and all of convoy JW 51B reached Russia.
Bay
Bay: a broad coastal inlet partly enclosed by land, related to bights, gulfs, and sounds. Many large bays such as Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are estuaries with brackish, tidally mixed water.
Bay of Bengal
Bay of Bengal: triangular northern arm of the Indian Ocean between India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar; seasonally reversing monsoon currents, strong freshwater barrier layer, low productivity, and the world's deadliest tropical cyclone coast; BIMSTEC's namesake sea.
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay (Golfo de Vizcaya, Golfe de Gascogne) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean bounded by western France and northern Spain, known for rough seas.
Bay of Fundy
Bay of Fundy: Atlantic bay between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, famed for the world's largest tides, over 16 m at Minas Basin, driven by near resonance of the bay–Gulf of Maine system with the 12.42-hour M2 tide.
Bay of Kiel
The Bay of Kiel (German: Kieler Bucht; Danish: Kiel Bugt) is a bay in the southwestern Baltic Sea off Germany's Schleswig-Holstein and the Danish islands, linked to Kiel by the Kiel Fjord.
Bay of Kotor (Бока которска)
The Bay of Kotor (Бока которска, Boka) is a winding Adriatic bay in southwestern Montenegro, a ria entering over 20 km inland with four gulfs, Venetian fortifications, the UNESCO-listed Kotor region (1979), and the Port of Kotor cruise hub.
Bay of Mecklenburg
Bay of Mecklenburg (Mecklenburger Bucht), a southwestern Baltic Sea bay off Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the Belt Sea transition zone, with Zechstein salt-floored seabed, Baltic Ice Lake shorelines 20-40 m below sea level, and seasonal oxygen deficiency.
Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs (Bahía de Cochinos), inlet of the Gulf of Cazones on Cuba's southern coast, Matanzas Province; site of the failed CIA-backed Brigade 2506 exile invasion of April 17, 1961, defeated by Castro's forces in two days; also a diving destination.
Bay of Plenty
Bay of Plenty (Te Moana a Toi): large bight and region on New Zealand's eastern North Island coast, named by Cook in 1769; Tauranga city and port, volcanic islands, dairy and kiwifruit economy.
Bayou
Bayou: a slow-moving creek or still water channel of the Gulf Coast, from Louisiana French and Choctaw bayuk (small stream), first in English 1766; distinct from a swamp.
Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche is a former Mississippi River distributary running about 106-110 miles from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to the Gulf, dammed in 1903-1904 and now supplying drinking water to about 300,000 residents.
Bays of Macquarie Island
The bays of Macquarie Island, a sub-Antarctic Australian reserve, include Buckles Bay and Hasselborough Bay at the north end, historic landing points for sealing and penguin-oil industries.
Beagle Channel
The Beagle Channel (Canal Beagle) is a strait at the southern tip of South America, linking the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and separating Tierra del Fuego from islands to the south.
Beagle conflict
Beagle conflict: Argentina-Chile dispute over Picton, Lennox, and Nueva islands in the Beagle Channel; 1977 arbitration favored Chile, Argentina rejected it, 1978 war crisis, papal mediation, settled by 1984 Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
Bear Lake (Idaho–Utah)
Bear Lake is a large turquoise freshwater lake on the Idaho-Utah border in a half graben valley of the Bear River, 32 km long, up to 63 m deep, with four endemic fish and a famous 1868 monster legend.
Bear River (Great Salt Lake)
Bear River, largest tributary of Great Salt Lake, a 500-mile river rising in Utah's Uinta Mountains and crossing Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho five times; supplies about 64% of lake inflow, governed by the 1958/1980 Bear River Compact, site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre.
Beas River
Beas River (Sanskrit Vipasa, Greek Hyphasis), Himalayan tributary of the Indus in India rising at Rohtang Pass; site of Alexander the Great's 326 BC army mutiny and home of India's last Indus River dolphins.
Beaufort Gyre
The Beaufort Gyre is a wind-driven anticyclonic circulation in the Arctic Ocean's Canada Basin and its largest freshwater reservoir, storing about 25% of Arctic freshwater; it gained over 6,400 km3 from 2003 to 2018 and is regulated by the ice-ocean governor.
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.
Beaver (river)
Beaver River names several North American rivers: a 661 km Churchill River tributary in Alberta-Saskatchewan, a Liard headwater in BC-Yukon, the North Canadian River in Oklahoma, a Utah stream, and an Ontario Lake Simcoe subwatershed.
Beeliar Wetlands
Beeliar Wetlands: two chains of lakes and swamps in Perth's southern suburbs, mostly within Beeliar Regional Park; Thomsons Lake is Ramsar-listed, and the 2021 MRS Act rezoned the wetlands for permanent protection.
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.
Beloe
Beloe (Beloye Ozero, White Lake) is the Russian name of many lakes; the largest, in Vologda Oblast, Russia, is a 1,284 km2 shallow lake on the Volga-Baltic Waterway, distinct from smaller namesakes in Belarus, Moscow, and Siberia.
Beni
Beni (Río Beni), river in northern Bolivia rising in the Andes near La Paz; joins the Mamoré to form the Madeira. About 1,500–1,600 km long, 6,200 m³/s mean discharge; also the Beni Department (capital Trinidad, created 1842).
Benue
Benue River, major West African river rising in Cameroon, flowing southwest to join the Niger at Lokoja, Nigeria; namesake of Benue State, the 'Food Basket of the Nation'; supports fishing, irrigation, and transport but suffers flooding from Cameroon's Lagdo dam.
Berge
Berge: French feminine noun for the sloping bank of a river, stream, or canal, above normal water level; English equivalents bank, river bank, steep bank. Covers etymology, geomorphology, ecology, and GEMET terminology.
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.