2,436 articles
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.
Berkeley Springs (hot spring)
Berkeley Springs (Warm Springs, Bath) is a group of warm mineral springs, about 74°F, in Berkeley Springs State Park, Morgan County, West Virginia, famed since colonial times, visited by George Washington, with free public water and 1815 Roman Bath House.
Bermejo
Bermejo River (Río Bermejo), Andes-rising Argentina-Bolivia tributary of the Paraguay River in the La Plata basin; ~1,300-1,600 km long, 123,162 km² basin, and one of the world's most sediment-laden rivers.
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.
Betula nigra
Betula nigra, river birch (also red, water, or black birch), a fast-growing deciduous Betulaceae tree of eastern US streambanks and floodplains, with exfoliating bark, spring-fruiting catkins, and bronze birch borer resistance.
Betwa
Betwa (Vetravati), right-bank tributary of the Yamuna in central India, rising in Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, and joining the Yamuna near Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh; about 590 km long, dammed at Matatila, Rajghat, Dhukwan, and Parichha, and target of the Ken-Betwa Link Project.
Beymelek Lagoon
Beymelek Lagoon (Beymelek Lagünü), a 255 ha brackish coastal lagoon in Demre, Antalya, Turkey, the only natural lagoon on the country's western Mediterranean coast, fed by karst springs, with a state seabass and seabream hatchery and protected wetland status.
Beyşehir
Beyşehir (Beyşehir Gölü) is Turkey's largest freshwater lake, in Konya and İsparta provinces; a 1993 national park with 33 islands, Seljuk Kubadabad Palace, major birdlife, and declining water levels under drought and irrigation pressure.
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.
Bhima (landform)
Bhima River (Chandrabhaga near Pandharpur), major left-bank tributary of the Krishna in peninsular India; rises at Bhimashankar, Maharashtra, runs about 861 km through Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Telangana, joining the Krishna near Raichur; basin about 70,614 sq km, roughly 75% in Maharashtra.
Biebrza National Park
Biebrza National Park (Biebrzański Park Narodowy), established 9 September 1993, is Poland's largest national park at 59,223 ha, protecting the Biebrza Marshes peatlands; Ramsar site since 1995, Natura 2000 since 2004.
Bieler Lake
Bieler Lake: official lake in Nunavut, Canada, at 70°23′N 73°5′W, named 5 April 1951, NTS sheet 037E07, water level about 505 m asl; distinct from the Swiss Bielersee.
Bienville
Bienville names Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville (1680-1767), founder of New Orleans, and places honoring him, chiefly Lac Bienville (1,047 km2, Quebec) and Bienville Parish, Louisiana.
Big Ass Lake
Big Ass Lake is an officially named small lake in Halifax County, Nova Scotia, Canada, also called a glacial lake near Moose River Gold Mines; named March 5, 1953, CGNDB key CACXC, coordinates 44.92555, -62.932829.
Big Quill Lake
Big Quill Lake: Canada's largest saltwater lake, largest of Saskatchewan's three Quill Lakes; shallow (~1.5 m), hypersaline, Ramsar site since 1987, major piping plover habitat.
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 Drainages
Bight Drainages is a West African freshwater ecoregion of coastal rivers draining into the Gulf of Guinea, spanning Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria, with about 246 recorded fish species.
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.
Billabong
Billabong: Australian English term for an oxbow lake or stagnant backwater, first recorded 1865 from Billibang (billa, water). Forms by meander neck cutoff; ecology driven by hydrological connectivity; threatened by feral ungulates and drying.
Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay is a shallow subtropical lagoon along Miami-Dade County, Florida, from Haulover Inlet to Key Largo, home to Biscayne National Park and state aquatic preserves; a $64 billion economic asset facing seagrass loss, nutrient pollution, and Everglades restoration efforts.
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.
Black Volta
The Black Volta, or Mouhoun, is a permanent West African river rising in Burkina Faso, flowing about 1,350 km into Lake Volta in Ghana; its basin spans four countries.
Black Warrior River
The Black Warrior River is a 178-mile river in west-central Alabama, the Tombigbee's primary tributary, formed by the Sipsey, Mulberry, and Locust Forks; its 6,276-square-mile watershed is Alabama's largest entirely in-state river system.
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.