Oceanographical terminology

alt=A satellite view of the Hawaiian islands, with the top of the image being North. There are few clouds, and most of the image is the seawater swirling in the wind, surrounding the islands.|thumb|upright=1.3|The Hawaiian Islands, a major archipelago in the [[Pacific Ocean]] An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been part of a continent. Oceanic islands can be formed from volcanic activity, grow in

thumb|upright=1.6|The Indonesian Archipelago, located in Asia and [[Oceania, is the largest archipelagic state in the world.]] thumb|upright|The Aegean Sea with its large number of islands is the origin of the term archipelago. thumb|The Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Examples of archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the origin of the term), the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, the Stockholm Archipelago, the Mal

A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells or coralline algae. Sediments settle in different densities and structures, depending on the local wave action and weather, creating different textures, colors and gradients or layers of material.

thumb|Bay at Castletown, Isle of Man thumb|Bay of Baracoa, Cuba

thumb|upright=1.2|An iceberg in the Arctic Ocean thumb|Tabular iceberg thumb|Iceberg from overhead showing above and submerged ice

thumb|The atoll of Tetiʻaroa in [[French Polynesia]]

average level for the surface of one or more of Earth's oceans

thumb| Balos coastal lagoon of northwestern Crete. The shallow lagoon is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by narrow shoals connecting to a small, rocky mountain. thumb|Garabogazköl lagoon in [[Turkmenistan]] thumb|Venetian Lagoon

thumb|Sunrise on the [[Jersey Shore coastline at Spring Lake, New Jersey, U.S.]] thumb|Rugged coastline of the West Coast, New Zealand|West Coast Region of New Zealand A view of the plain near Dikili in Turkey|thumb thumb|Southeast coast of Greenland thumb|Escorca coast, [[Serra de Tramuntana (Balearic Islands)]]

thumb|upright=1.5| Part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The image contains diverse planktonic organisms, ranging from [[photosynthetic cyanobacteria and diatoms to many different types of zooplankton, including both holoplankton (permanent residents of the plankton) and meroplankton (temporary residents of the plankton, e.g., fish eggs, crab larvae, worm larvae). 100 μm = one tenth of a mm.]]

ridge of rock in the sea formed by the growth and deposit of coral

thumb|upright=1.3|Mangroves are hardy shrubs and trees that thrive in salt water and have specialised adaptations so they can survive the volatile energies of intertidal zones along marine coasts.

surface waves that occur on the free surface of bodies of water

headland of large size extending into a body of water, usually the sea

continuous flow of ocean water

portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water known as a shelf sea

Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximately of dissolved salts (predominantly sodium () and chloride () ions). The average density at the surface is 1.025 kg/L. Seawater is denser than both fresh water and pure water (density 1.0 kg/L at ) because the dissolved salts increase the mass by a larger proportion than the volume. The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentrati

basaltic underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonic spreading

depressions of the sea floor

any water that is neither close to the bottom nor near the shore

REDIRECT Benthic zone#Benthos

ice formed from frozen seawater

part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore

pollution that gets thrown in the oceans

right|thumb|Sandbar between St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly|St Agnes and [[Gugh on the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom]] thumb|A tidal sandbar connecting the islands of Waya Island|Waya and Wayasewa of the [[Yasawa Islands, Fiji]] thumb|Sandbar between Nosy Iranja Be and Nosy Iranja Kely(Nosy Iranja, [[Madagascar)]]

flat area on the ocean floor

layer of the pelagic zone of the ocean; the deeper part of the midnight zone which starts in the bathypelagic waters above, the area below the abyssal zone is the sparsely inhabited hadal zone

REDIRECT Bay#Gulf

thumb|upright=1.8| Zooplankton sample including several species of copepods (1–5), [[gastropod larva (6) doliolids (7), fish eggs (8), and decapod larva (9) (Photo by Iole Di Capua)]]

part of Earth's lithosphere

climate change-induced decline of pH levels in the ocean

process at mid-ocean ridges, where new oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge

underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt

narrow current of water which moves directly away from the shore, cutting through the lines of breaking waves

Nekton or necton (from the ) is any aquatic organism that can actively and persistently propel itself through a water column (i.e. swim) without touching the bottom. Nekton generally have powerful tails and appendages (e.g. fins, pleopods, flippers or jets) that make them strong enough swimmers to counter ocean currents, and have mechanisms for sufficient lift and/or buoyancy to prevent sinking. Examples of extant nekton include most fish (especially pelagic fish like tuna and sharks), marine mammals (cetaceans, sirenia and pinnipeds) and reptiles (specifically sea turtles), penguins, coleoid

thumb|right|300px|Tombolo near Karystos, [[Euboea, Greece]] thumb|300px|right|Tombolo contrasted with other coastal landforms A tombolo is a sandy or shingle isthmus. It is a deposition landform by which an island becomes attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island. The word tombolo is from the Italian '''', meaning 'pillow' or 'cushion', and sometimes translated incorrectly as ayre (an ayre is a shingle beach of any kind).

ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean or a lake, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers

area between tide marks

area of sea with a depth greater than twice the depth of Ekman layer

human-created waste that has deliberately or accidentally been released in a lake, sea, ocean or waterway

uppermost layer of water in a lake or ocean that is exposed to sunlight more than 1% of surface illumination

renewable energy technology

geologic basin under the sea

type of sea with limited water exchange with outer oceans

series of waves generated by distant weather systems

part of the ocean

zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust

Fauna found in deep sea areas

ocean floor area where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs

geological process of areas of submerged seafloor being exposed above the sea level

among the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems

coastal landform and a type of dune system

thumb|right|upright=1.3|Diagram of the 1958 Lituya Bay earthquake and megatsunami|1958 Lituya Bay megatsunami, which proved the existence of megatsunamis A megatsunami is an extremely large wave created by a substantial and sudden displacement of material into a body of water.

shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column

energy carried by oceans

composed of trench zones, is the delineation for the deepest trenches in the ocean. The hadal zone is found from a depth to the bottom of the ocean of around 6,000 to 11,000 metres and exists in long but narrow topographic V-shaped depressions

relatively flat submarine region that rises well above the level of the ambient seabed

geological process by which sediments move along a beach shore

low-oxygen areas in oceans and large lakes caused by nutrient and fertilizer pollution

wave traveling along the phase boundary of a fluid, whose dynamics and phase velocity are dominated by the effects of surface tension