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Mer de Glace

(Encyclopedia)Mer de Glace mĕr də gläs [key] [Fr.,=sea of ice], glacier (3.5 mi/5.6 km long; 16 sq mi/41 sq km), Haute-Savoie dept., E France, on the northern slope of Mont Blanc. It is formed by the junction of...

rainmaking

(Encyclopedia)rainmaking, production of rain by artificial means now generally disregarded, though it is probable that rainmaking hastens or increases rainfall from clouds suitable for natural rainfall. Interest in...

hail, in meteorology

(Encyclopedia)hail, precipitation in the form of pellets composed of ice or of ice and snow, occurring at any time of the year, usually during the passage of a cold front or during a thunderstorm. Small hailstones ...

snowball earth

(Encyclopedia)snowball earth, hypothesized condition in which the earth was covered completely by ice during several periods in the Proterozoic. The hypothesis was originally developed to explain evidence of the co...

Öraefajökull

(Encyclopedia)Öraefajökull öˈrīväyöˌkütəl [key], mountain, Vatnajökull National Park, SE Iceland, rising from the Vatnajökull glacier. Öraefajökull is an ice-covered, three-peaked volcano. The largest...

Columbia, river, Canada and the United States

(Encyclopedia)Columbia, river, c.1,210 mi (1,950 km) long, rising in Columbia Lake, SE British Columbia, Canada. It flows first NW in the Rocky Mt. Trench, then hooks sharply about the Selkirk Mts. to flow S throug...

megatherium

(Encyclopedia)megatherium mĕgəthērˈēəm [key] [Gr.,=large beast], extinct ground sloth, of the genus Megatherium, that was widely distributed in North and South America in the Pleistocene epoch. Fossil evidenc...

Ross Sea

(Encyclopedia)Ross Sea, arm of the Pacific Ocean, Antarctica, between Victoria Land and Marie Byrd Land. It was discovered in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross, a British explorer. Ross Island with Mt. Erebus, an active...

Arctic Ocean

(Encyclopedia)Arctic Ocean, the smallest ocean, c.5,400,000 sq mi (13,986,000 sq km), located entirely within the Arctic Circle and occupying the region around the North Pole. The Arctic basin was almost wholly u...

oasis

(Encyclopedia)oasis ōāˈsĭs [key], an area within a desert where the water table reaches the surface, with enough moisture to permit the growth of vegetation. The water may come up to the surface in springs, or ...