Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

428 results found

Kongsfjorden

(Encyclopedia)Kongsfjorden kôngsˌfyôrˈdən [key] [Kings Bay], inlet of the Arctic Ocean, 14 mi (23 km) long, NW Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Ny-Ålesund is on the inlet. The scenic fjord is often visited by tourist v...

McClure Strait

(Encyclopedia)McClure Strait, arm of the Beaufort Sea, c.170 mi (270 km) long and 60 mi (100 km) wide, Northwest Territories, Canada. It extends W from Viscount Melville Sound, between Melville and Eglinton islands...

De Long, George Washington

(Encyclopedia)De Long, George Washington də lôngˈ [key], 1844–81, American arctic explorer, b. New York City, grad. Annapolis, 1865. In 1873 he was assigned to the Juniata, which was sent to the arctic to sear...

Northeast Passage

(Encyclopedia)Northeast Passage, water route along the northern coast of Europe and Asia, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Beginning in the 15th cent., efforts were made to find a new all-water route to Ind...

Amakusa Islands

(Encyclopedia)Amakusa Islands ämäko͞oˈsä [key], archipelago, c.340 sq mi (880 sq km), Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, in the East China Sea, off W Kyushu, Japan. There are about 70 islands in the group. Sh...

Inside Passage

(Encyclopedia)Inside Passage, natural, protected waterway, c.950 mi (1,530 km) long, threading through the Alexander Archipelago off the coast of British Columbia and SE Alaska. From Seattle, Wash., to Skagway, Ala...

San Blas Islands

(Encyclopedia)San Blas Islands mo͞oläˈtäs [key], archipelago off the northeast coast of Panama. It consists of 332 coral islands. The inhabitants are almost pure-blooded aborigines of Carib origin; fishing and ...

Vadsø

(Encyclopedia)Vadsø vädˈsö [key], town (1995 pop. 6,410), capital of Finnmark co., NE Norway, an ice-free arctic port on the Varangerfjord. It is a fishing and fish-processing center and a trade center for rein...

Petermann, August Heinrich

(Encyclopedia)Petermann, August Heinrich ouˈgo͝ost hīnˈrĭkh pāˈtərmän [key], 1822–78, German geographer, an authority on the geography of Africa and the Arctic. He had (1847–54) a cartographical establ...

permafrost

(Encyclopedia)permafrost, permanently frozen soil, subsoil, or other deposit, characteristic of arctic and some subarctic regions; similar conditions are also found at very high altitudes in mountain ranges. In 196...