Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Jungfrau

(Encyclopedia)Jungfrau –yôkhˌ [key] is a mountain saddle 11,333 ft (3,454 m) high, the highest point in Europe reached by rail. It has a scientific institute and is popular with tourists. A meteorological stati...

Sun Valley

(Encyclopedia)Sun Valley, mountain resort city (1990 pop. 938), alt. c.6,000 ft (1,830 m), Blaine co., S central Idaho; inc. 1967. It is a popular year-round resort with both winter and summer sports. It was founde...

Taklimakan

(Encyclopedia)Taklimakan or Takla Makan täˌkləməkänˈ [key], vast sandy desert, c.125,000 sq mi (323,750 sq km), central Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, NW China, between the Kunlun Mts. on the south and the...

talus

(Encyclopedia)talus tāˈləs [key], deposit of rock fragments detached from cliffs or mountain slopes by weathering and piled up at their bases. A talus is a common geologic feature in regions of high cliffs. The ...

Pittsfield

(Encyclopedia)Pittsfield, city (1990 pop. 48,622), seat of Berkshire co., W Mass., between mountain ranges, on branches of the Housatonic River; inc. as a town 1761, as a city 1889. The city is the metropolis of th...

Bok, Edward William

(Encyclopedia)Bok, Edward William, 1863–1930, American editor, b. Helder, Netherlands. His family emigrated to the United States in 1870. He founded the Brooklyn Magazine (later Cosmopolitan) in 1883. As editor (...

Longyearbyen

(Encyclopedia)Longyearbyen lôngˈyērbüˌən [key], town and administrative center of Svalbard, on Isfjorden, Spitsbergen island. It was founded (1905) as a coal-mining settlement by an American company and named...

Saint Elmo's fire

(Encyclopedia)Saint Elmo's fire, luminous discharge of electricity extending into the atmosphere from some projecting or elevated object. It is usually observed (often during a snowstorm or a dust storm) as brushli...

Qinling

(Encyclopedia)Qinling or Tsinling both: chĭnˈlĭngˈ [key], mountain range, outlier of the Kunlun Mts., between the Wei and Han rivers, Shaanxi prov., central China; Taibai shan (13,494 ft/4,113 m) is the highest...

Olson, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Olson, Charles, 1910–70, American critic and poet, b. Worcester, Mass., grad. Harvard (B.A., 1932; M.A., 1933). His literary reputation was established with Call Me Ishmael (1947), a study of the in...