Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

36 results found

thunder

(Encyclopedia)thunder, sound produced along a path of a lightning flash, caused by the rapid heating and expansion of the adjacent air; lightning can heat air to temperatures as much as five times hotter than those...

Thunder Bay

(Encyclopedia)Thunder Bay, city (1991 pop. 113,946), SW Ont., Canada, on Thunder Bay inlet of Lake Superior. The city was created in 1970 by the amalgamation of the twin cities of Fort William and Port Arthur and t...

Alpena

(Encyclopedia)Alpena ălpēˈnə [key], city, seat of Alpena co., N Mich., on Thunder Bay, an arm of Lake Huron; inc. 1871. Limestone quarried nearby is used to make cement, Alpena's ch...

Kaministikwia

(Encyclopedia)Kaministikwia kəmĭnˌĭstĭkˈwēə [key], river, c.60 mi (100 km) long, rising in Dog Lake, W Ont., Canada, and flowing S, then E into Lake Superior at Thunder Bay. In fur trade days it was the chi...

Fort William

(Encyclopedia)Fort William: see Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada. ...

Lakehead University

(Encyclopedia)Lakehead University, at Thunder Bay, Ont., Canada; founded 1946 as Lakehead Technical Institute. It achieved university status in 1965. Lakehead has faculties of arts and science, business, education,...

lightning

(Encyclopedia)lightning, electrical discharge accompanied by thunder, commonly occurring during a thunderstorm. The discharge may take place between one part of a cloud and another part (intracloud), between one cl...

Salmoneus

(Encyclopedia)Salmoneus sălmōˈnēəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Elis; son of Aeolus. Pretending to be Zeus, he demanded sacrifices, threw torches to imitate lightning, and made noises like thunder with h...

Bontemps, Arna

(Encyclopedia)Bontemps, Arna, 1902–73, African-American writer, b. Alexandria, La. He is best remembered as the author of the novel God Sends Sunday (1931), the basis of the play St. Louis Woman (1946); and of Bl...

Browse by Subject