Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Bow, river, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Bow bō [key], river, 315 mi (507 km) long, rising in the Rocky Mts., S Alta., Canada, and flowing SE through Banff National Park. It emerges from the mountains in the Bow River Pass and continues pas...

Cordilleras

(Encyclopedia)Cordilleras kôrdĭlˈərəz, Span. kōrdēyāˈräs [key] [Span., originally=little string], general name for the entire chain of mountain systems of W North America, extending from N Alaska to Nicar...

Namib

(Encyclopedia)Namib näˈmĭb [key], desert, c.800 mi (1,290 km) long and from 30 to 100 mi (50–160 km) wide, SW Africa, along the coast of Namibia. It occupies a rocky platform between the Atlantic Ocean and the...

watershed

(Encyclopedia)watershed, elevation or divide separating the catchment area, or drainage basin, of one river system or group of river systems from another system or group of systems. The term is also often used syno...

foehn

(Encyclopedia)foehn fān, Ger. fön [key], warm, dry wind that occurs on the leeward slopes of a ridge of mountains. The term was originally applied to a wind of the Alps but is now used as a generic term for all w...

Cardamom Hills, mountains, India

(Encyclopedia)Cardamom Hills kärˈdəməm [key], range, c.4,000 ft (1,220 m) high, c.1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), Kerala state, southern tip of India. Tea, coffee, teak, bamboo, turmeric, and cardamom, which gives t...

Cork, county, Ireland

(Encyclopedia)Cork, county, 2,881 sq mi (7,462 sq km), SW Republic of Ireland. Cork is the county seat. Largest of the Irish counties, it has a rocky and much-indente...

chamois

(Encyclopedia)chamois shămˈē [key], hollow-horned, hoofed mammal, Rupicapra rupicapra, found in the mountains of Europe and the E Mediterranean. It is about the size of a large goat and is light brown with a bla...

bighorn, in zoology

(Encyclopedia)bighorn or Rocky Mountain sheep, wild sheep, Ovis canadensis, of W North America, formerly plentiful in mountains from SW Canada to N Mexico. Indiscriminate hunting, disease, and scarcity of food enor...

Gilbert, Grove Karl

(Encyclopedia)Gilbert, Grove Karl, 1843–1918, American geologist, b. Rochester, N.Y., grad. Univ. of Rochester, 1862. When the U.S. Geological Survey was created in the Dept. of the Interior in 1879 (to replace f...

Browse by Subject