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Oahu

(Encyclopedia)Oahu ōäˈho͞o [key], island (1990 pop. 836,231), 593 sq mi (1,536 sq km), third largest and chief island of Hawaii, part of Honolulu co., between Molokai and Kauai. Oahu is composed of two parallel...

Recife

(Encyclopedia)Recife rəsēˈfĭ [key] [Port.,=reef], city (1991 pop. 1,298,229), capital of Pernambuco state, NE Brazil, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. It is also called Pernambuco by foreigners. The chief urban ce...

giant clam

(Encyclopedia)giant clam, common name for the largest bivalve mollusk in the world, Tridacna gigas, also known as the bear's paw clam. The giant clam may weigh over 500 lb (225 kg) and attain a length of over 4 ft ...

bass, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bass băs [key], common name applied to various fishes of Centrarchidae (black basses and sunfishes), Serranidae (sea basses and groupers), Moronidae (temperate basses), and other families. All basses...

Carson, Rachel Louise

(Encyclopedia)Carson, Rachel Louise, 1907–64, American writer and marine biologist, b. Springdale, Pa., M.A. Johns Hopkins, 1932. Her well-known books on sea life—Under the Sea-Wind (1941), The Sea around Us (1...

Mangyshlak Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Mangyshlak Peninsula mən-gĭshläkˈ [key], W Kazakhstan, extending into the NE Caspian Sea. Except for the Kara-Tau range, the peninsula is below sea level; Batyr Sink is c.430 ft (130 m) below sea ...

Jordan, river, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, river, c.200 mi (320 km) long, formed in the Hula basin, N Israel, by the confluence of three headwater streams and meandering S through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; the region of Pales...

Vyg

(Encyclopedia)Vyg vĭg [key], Finn. Uikujärvi, Rus. Vygozero, lake, c.300 sq mi (780 sq km), NW European Russia, in Karelia, between Lake Onega and the White Sea. It is fed by the Vyg River, which also drains it i...

nautilus, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)nautilus or chambered nautilus, cephalopod mollusk belonging to the sole surviving genus (Nautilus) of a subclass that flourished 200 million years ago, known as the nautiloids. The spirally coiled sh...

Polynesia

(Encyclopedia)Polynesia pŏlĭnēˈzhə, –shə [key] [Gr.,=many islands], one of the three main divisions of Oceania, in the central and S Pacific Ocean. The larger islands are volcanic; the smaller ones are gene...