A warm moist southeast wind from the sea on the French Mediterranean coast and in the Maritime Alps, especially frequent in spring and autumn. In the Rh?ne delta it blows also from the south. The mari
n is associated with depressions that cross southern France or northern Spain and the Gulf of Lions. Generally, it is strong and regular, sometimes violent and turbulent in hilly country as the ayalas in the Massif Central; it is very humid, cloudy with hill fog, and often rainy (unless unaccompanied by fronts, when it is the marin blanc). The heavy rains, which may continue for one or two days on the mountain slopes, cause dangerous river floods. On the western slope of the C?vennes it becomes the autan. In the southern C?vennes the marin is called the aygalas. On the coast of Catalonia (northeast Spain) and Roussillon (southern France) it is the marinada and generally occurs with a depression centered over or south of the Gulf of Gascony. Compare sirocco.
An ice sheet containing a substantial region that rests on a bed lying below sea level and whose perimeter is in contact with the ocean. The best known example is the West Antarctic ice sheet.
(Also called maritime climate, oceanic climate.) A regional climate under the predominant influence of the sea, characterized by relatively small seasonal variations and high atmospheric moisture cont
ent; the antithesis of a continental climate.