Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

glacier

(Encyclopedia)glacier, moving mass of ice that survives year to year, formed by the compacting of snow into névé and then into granular ice and set in motion outward and downward by the force of gravity and the s...

Sabin, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Sabin, Joseph săbˈĭn [key], 1821–81, American bibliophile, b. England. Sabin came to the United States in 1848 and established himself as a dealer in rare books in New York City and Philadelphia....

shopping center

(Encyclopedia)shopping center, a concentration of retail, service, and entertainment enterprises designed to serve the surrounding region. The modern shopping center differs from its antecedents—bazaars and marke...

Melville Bay

(Encyclopedia)Melville Bay, broad indentation of the western coast of Greenland, opening to the SW into Baffin Bay. The inland ice cap comes down to the coast, and glaciers discharge much ice into its waters. ...

water

(Encyclopedia)CE5 A. Water molecule (black circles represent valence-shell electrons) B. Structure of ice: Each oxygen atom (white circles) is bonded to four other oxygen atoms by hydrogen bonds, the hydrogen at...

halo, in meteorology

(Encyclopedia)halo, in meteorology, short-lived circles or arcs, and less commonly spikes and crosses, of colored or whitish light surrounding the moon or sun or in clouds as seen from above. A halo occurs when the...

frozen foods

(Encyclopedia)frozen foods, products of the food preservation process of freezing. This process has been employed by people in the Arctic from prehistoric times. Eskimos throw fresh-caught fish on the ice to freeze...

iceboating

(Encyclopedia)iceboating, sport of sailing a specially prepared boat equipped with runners over ice. The first iceboats were probably sailed by the Dutch during the 18th cent., although the Finns and Sami (Lapps) m...

Antarctic Peninsula

(Encyclopedia)Antarctic Peninsula, glaciated mountain region of W Antarctica, extending c.1,200 mi (1,930 km) N toward South America. In the south, volcanic peaks rise to c.11,000 ft (3,350 m); other volcanic cones...

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...