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dredging

(Encyclopedia)dredging, process of excavating materials underwater. It is used to deepen waterways, harbors, and docks and for mining alluvial mineral deposits, including tin, gold, and diamonds. The Dutch at an ea...

Mendoza, Antonio de

(Encyclopedia)Mendoza, Antonio de äntōˈnyō dā māndōˈthä [key], 1490?–1552, Spanish administrator, first viceroy of New Spain (1535–50) and viceroy of Peru (1551–52). Of noble family, Mendoza held hig...

Astoria

(Encyclopedia)Astoria ăstôrˈēə [key]. 1 Commercial, industrial, and residential section of NW Queens borough of New York City, SE N.Y.; settled in the 17th cent. as Hallet's Cove. It was renamed for John Jacob...

Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, Canadian fur trader and explorer

(Encyclopedia)Mackenzie, Sir Alexander, 1764?–1820, Canadian fur trader and explorer, b. Scotland. His family took him to the colony of New York in 1774, and later he was sent to Canada. He entered (c.1779) a Mon...

Coahuila

(Encyclopedia)Coahuila kōäwēˈlä [key], state, 58,067 sq mi (150,394 sq km), N Mexico, on the northward ...

Great Salt Lake

(Encyclopedia)Great Salt Lake, shallow body of saltwater, NW Utah, between the Wasatch Range on the east and the Great Salt Lake Desert on the west; largest salt lake in North America. Fed by the Weber, Jordan, and...

Levittown

(Encyclopedia)Levittown lĕvˈət-tounˌ [key]. 1 Uninc. residential city (1990 pop. 53,286), Nassau co., SE N.Y., on Long Island; founded 1947. Originally about 7 sq mi (18 sq km) of potato fields, it was develope...

Russian State Library

(Encyclopedia)Russian State Library (RSL), Russia's national library, located in Moscow; one of the world's largest libraries. Moscow's first public library, the RSL was founded in 1862 as the library portion of th...

selection

(Encyclopedia)selection. In Darwinism, the mechanism of natural selection is considered of major importance in the process of evolution. Popular formulations sometimes envisage a struggle for existence in which dir...

Turrell, James

(Encyclopedia)Turrell, James, 1943–, American installation and land artist, b. Los Angeles, grad. Pomona College (B.A., 1965), Claremont Graduate School (M.F.A., 1973). Turrell's career began in the 1960s art sce...