Clouds are accumulations of visible water droplets or ice crystals in the atmosphere, usually the troposphere, that produce precipitation and significantly affect the thermodynamic and optical properties of the planet Earth, as well as climate. Clouds are found on all the planets of the solar system that have atmospheres, although their composition may be different [...]

The Charleston Bump is a geological feature rising from the ocean floor off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. It is located 93 miles (150 km) south of Charleston, South Carolina; hence its name. The continental shelf off the East Coast at this point falls to a depth of almost 2,300 feet (700 m), [...]

Maps that have been specifically designed to meet the requirements of marine navigation are called nautical charts. These graphical portrayals of the marine environment depict elevations of selected topographic features, general configurations and characteristics of the coast, water depths obtained from hydrographic surveys, the nature or composition of the bottom from grab samplers, dangers and [...]

Chemical oceanogra-phers are scientists who study the chemistry of the sea to include the sediments below and the atmosphere above and their interrelationships. They investigate chemical processes, track the movement of chemicals in the ocean, and identify the effects of contaminants on marine ecosystems. Applied chemical oceanography involves pollution control, studies of the role of [...]

Chesapeake Bay is a semi-enclosed body of water partially protected from the open sea, which is located in the mid-Atlantic along the U.S. East Coast. Marine scientists classify Chesapeake Bay as a drowned river valley estuary. It is the largest estuary in the United States, spanning nearly 200 miles (321.9 km) from the Susquehanna River [...]

In 1989, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Horn Point Laboratory, launched the Chesapeake Bay Observing System (CBOS) with two realtime instrumented buoys placed in the upper and middle reaches of the bay. Like the tides, the number of CBOS stations has increased and decreased based on user requirements and funding. The system [...]

Sharks, skates, rays, and chimeras all belong to the class of living fishes called chon-drichthyes. Chondrichthyes comes from the Greek chondros for cartilage and ichthys for fish. What these fishes all have in common is the possession of a skeleton composed of cartilage rather than true bone. There are other differences as well, but this [...]

Supplies of wild fish species that spend most of the life cycle in freshwater but migrate to salt water to breed are catadromous stocks. Freshwater eels (Anguillidae) are one of the most common families of catadromous fish. Anadromous fish, such as salmon and lamprey, live the majority of the life cycle in salt water and [...]

A causeway is usually an unimproved road or a paved road constructed across marshy or periodically flooded terrain. Natural causeways may form when lava floes from volcanic eruptions near the coast comes into contact with the ocean whereas man-made causeways may also be fairly elaborate roads that cross broad water bodies or wetlands. During medieval [...]

Squids, cuttlefishes, octopi, and nautili constitute a class of animals known as the cepha-lopods. The cephalopods, or head-footed animals as they are called (cephalo from Latin meaning head, and poda meaning foot ), are placed in the phylum Mollusca (soft-bodied animals), and are characterized by having a linearly chambered shell, which in some species has [...]