2,436 articles
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.
Blakeney Point
Blakeney Point is a shingle spit on the North Norfolk coast of England, owned by the National Trust since 1912 and home to England's largest gray seal colony.
Blanket bog
A blanket bog is a rain-fed peatland that blankets the underlying topography across large areas, forming mainly in oceanic climates with over 1,000 mm of annual rainfall.
Blue carbon
Blue carbon is carbon captured and stored by ocean and coastal ecosystems, chiefly salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows, whose anaerobic soils sequester carbon up to ten times faster than tropical forests and support carbon markets.
Blue infrastructure
Blue infrastructure: the water network (rivers, canals, ponds, lakes, wetlands, floodplains, water treatment facilities) planned for flood prevention, cooling, and ecosystem services; also called blue-green infrastructure (BGI) or GBI when combined with green infrastructure.
Blue Lagoon (geothermal spa)
Blue Lagoon (Bláa lónið), geothermal spa on Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula formed in 1976 from Svartsengi power plant effluent; silica-rich 37 °C seawater-freshwater mix, company founded 1992, repeatedly disrupted by eruptions since 2023.
Blue Lake
Blue Lake (Ramsar site 800, 1996) is a 28 m deep glacial cirque lake in Kosciuszko National Park, NSW, one of four on mainland Australia, with Hedley Tarn, a dimictic regime, and threatened alpine species.
Blue Nile
Blue Nile (Abay): major Nile tributary rising at Lake Tana, Ethiopia, joining the White Nile at Khartoum; supplies about 57% of Nile flow at the Sudan-Egypt border and hosts the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
Bluenose
Bluenose Lake is a large lake in Kitikmeot, Nunavut, Canada, at 68°25′N 119°45′W, named in 1953 by Nova Scotian caribou biologists; about 400 km², drained by the Croker River, with Bluenose-East and Bluenose-West caribou calving on either side.
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.
Bog
A bog, also called a peat bog, is a peat-forming wetland fed almost entirely by precipitation, producing acidic, nutrient-poor conditions, often carpeted with Sphagnum moss, where deep peat accumulates.
Bog body
Bog body (Moorleiche): a human corpse naturally mummified in acidic, anaerobic peat bogs, preserving skin, hair, and nails while bone dissolves. Famous finds include Tollund Man, Grauballe Man, and Lindow Man, mostly Iron Age deaths.
Bog butter
Bog butter is waxy buried animal fat, mostly ruminant dairy, chemically altered during burial to resemble adipocere, recovered from Irish and Scottish peat bogs from the Early Bronze Age onward.
Bog-wood
Bog-wood, also called bog oak when from oak, is subfossil wood preserved for hundreds or thousands of years in waterlogged peat bogs and river sediments; jet-black bog oak underpins European oak dendrochronologies reaching 8480 BC and supplies archaeological trackway timber.
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.
Bolmen
Bolmen is a large lake in western Småland, Sweden, about 184 km² with over 360 islands, the largest being Bolmsö. Since 1987 it supplies Skåne with drinking water via the 80 km Bolmen Tunnel, and it is studied for brownification.
Bonaerensean Drainages
Bonaerensean Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 347 in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina: temperate coastal rivers (Salado del Sur, Sauce Grande) plus 339 coastal lagoons, bounded by the Colorado basin divide.
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.
Bormio
Bormio, an Alpine town in Alta Valtellina, province of Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy, famed for nine thermal springs feeding three spas (Bormio Terme, Bagni Vecchi, Bagni Nuovi), the 2,758 m Stelvio Pass road (1825), Giro d'Italia cycling, and World Cup skiing.
Borneo Highlands
Borneo Highlands, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 743, covers montane headwaters of central Borneo in Malaysia and Kalimantan, Indonesia, draining to five seas and holding endemic balitorid loaches.
Borneo peat swamp forests
Borneo peat swamp forests, also called Borneo peatlands, are tropical rainforests on waterlogged peat in Borneo's lowlands. Key facts: about 69 Gt regional carbon store, under 1 million ha intact left, orangutan habitat, severe fire, and drainage degradation.
Bosna (river)
The Bosna, also known as River Bosna and historically Bathinus, is a river in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the namesake of the country, draining its largest river basin and flowing north into the Sava.