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Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

(Encyclopedia)Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, c.490,000 sq mi (1,260,000 sq km), central Pacific Ocean; est. 2009. The monument comprises the waters and reefs surrounding seven islands and atolls, ...

hydrothermal vent

(Encyclopedia)hydrothermal vent, crack along a rift or ridge in the deep ocean floor that spews out water heated to high temperatures by the magma under the earth's crust. Some vents are in areas of seafloor spread...

Caribbean Sea

(Encyclopedia)Caribbean Sea kârˌĭbēˈən, kərĭbˈēən [key], tropical sea, c.970,000 sq mi (2,512,950 sq km), arm of the Atlantic Ocean, Central America. It is bordered on the N and E by the West Indies arch...

West Indies

(Encyclopedia)CE5 West Indies, archipelago, between North and South America, curving c.2,500 mi (4,020 km) from Florida to the coast of Venezuela and separating the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico from the ...

island

(Encyclopedia)island, relatively small body of land surrounded entirely by water. (As the oceans form a continuous mass of water on the earth's surface, all continents are islands in the strict sense of the word.) ...

French Southern and Antarctic Lands

(Encyclopedia)French Southern and Antarctic Lands, overseas territory of France, including Adélie Land, which covers c.200,000 sq mi (520,000 sq km) in Antarctica, and a number of islands in the S Indian Ocean. Th...

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