Along the way, we passed a murky expanse of water with oily scum on the surface.

NEWYORKER: Unconventional Crude

The scene was blissfully beautiful: a placid expanse of water with patches of lotuses floating here and there, birds swooping and settling, children splashing, adults wading with fishing nets.

BBC: Piecing together puzzles in Cambodia

Developing countries, where law enforcement is weak, seem to do better when a group right over an expanse of water is given to a co-operative or village fleet.

ECONOMIST: Fishing and rights

Every day four waste treatment plants feed more than 250 million gallons of nitrogen filled wastewater into the bay, a massive expanse of 20, 000 acres of water sitting where Brooklyn and Queens meet at their southernmost point.

FORBES: Oysters Are Back In New York City Waters

Jetties Beach, just north of town, was the family crowd pleaser with a far expanse of warm, shallow water, a decent concession stand and -- while we were there -- seal sightings.

BBC: The kid-friendly perfection of Nantucket

Here mountains give way to an expanse of deserted white sand that runs hundreds of metres from shore at low tide, with the warm water waist-deep for hundred of metres more.

BBC: Vietnam's prison-island paradise