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pumice

(Encyclopedia)pumice pŭmˈĭs [key], volcanic glass formed by the solidification of lava that is permeated with gas bubbles. Usually found at the surface of a lava flow, it is colorless or light gray and has the g...

Perse, St.-John

(Encyclopedia)Perse, St.-John, pseud. of Alexis Saint-Léger Léger, 1887–1975, French poet and diplomat, b. West Indies. Léger, an opponent of appeasement of the Nazis, was enormously influential in France's fo...

Virgin Islands

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Virgin Islands, group of about 100 small islands, West Indies, E of Puerto Rico. The islands are divided politically between the United States and Great Britain. Although constituting the weste...

tropics

(Encyclopedia)tropics, also called tropical zone or torrid zone, all the land and water of the earth situated between the Tropic of Cancer at lat. 231⁄2°N and the Tropic of Capricorn at lat. 231⁄2°S. Every po...

Easter Island

(Encyclopedia)Easter Island, Span. Isla de Pascua, Polynesian Rapa Nui, remote island (2020 est. pop. 5,000), 66 sq mi (171 sq km), in the South Pacific, c.2,200 ...

Mitchum, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Mitchum, Robert (Robert Charles Duran Mitchum), 1917–97, American film actor, b. Bridgeport, Conn. He found extra work and bit parts in early 1940s movies, and first achieved wide notice for his sup...

sandstorm

(Encyclopedia)sandstorm, strong dry wind blowing over the desert that raises and carries along clouds of sand or dust often so dense as to obscure the sun and reduce visibility almost to zero; also known as a dusts...

temperature inversion

(Encyclopedia)temperature inversion, condition in which the temperature of the atmosphere increases with altitude in contrast to the normal decrease with altitude. When temperature inversion occurs, cold air underl...

Old Sarum

(Encyclopedia)Old Sarum sârˈəm [key], site of a former city, Wiltshire, S England, just N of Salisbury (New Sarum). Excavations and scanning technologies have revealed remains of a British Iron Age fort, the Rom...

Wouk, Herman

(Encyclopedia)Wouk, Herman wōk [key], 1915–2019, American writer, b. New York City. In The Caine Mutiny (1951; Pulitzer Prize), he made the protagonist-antagonist Captain Queeg a popular symbol of uncontrolled a...