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Paracel Islands

(Encyclopedia)Paracel Islands päräsĕlˈ [key], Chin. Xisha, group of low coral islands and reefs in the South China Sea, c.175 mi (280 km) SE of Hainan island. They are rich in guano and are underlain by oil dep...

Palawan

(Encyclopedia)Palawan päläˈwän [key], island (1990 pop. 528,287), 4,550 sq mi (11,785 sq km), 5th largest of the Philippines, N of Borneo and between the Sulu Archipelago and the South China Sea. Lumbering is a...

Solovetski Islands

(Encyclopedia)Solovetski or Solovetsky Islands sələvyĕtˈskē [key], archipelago, c.150 sq mi (390 sq km), N European Russia, in the White Sea at the entrance of Onega Bay. A monastery, built in the first half o...

Audubon Society, National

(Encyclopedia)Audubon Society, National, one of the oldest and best-known U.S. environmental organizations; founded 1886 by George Cird Grinnell and named for John James Audubon. The nonprofit organization, which h...

Gerlache, Adrien de

(Encyclopedia)Gerlache, Adrien de ädrē-ăN də gĕrläshˈ [key], 1866–1934, Belgian naval officer and explorer. Sailing with Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen who would later be the first to reach the South Po...

Fort Chipewyan

(Encyclopedia)Fort Chipewyan chĭpəwīˈən [key], trading post, NE Alta., Canada, at the west end of Lake Athabasca. The old Fort Chipewyan, on the south shore, was built for the North West Company at the urging ...

Siberian Platform

(Encyclopedia)Siberian Platform or Angara Shield, large, geologically stable area of Precambrian rocks, N Asia, comprising much of Siberia, Russia. It is bounded, in general, on the west by the Yenisei River, on th...

Vorkuta

(Encyclopedia)Vorkuta vərko͞otäˈ [key], city (2010 pop. 70,548), Komi Republic, NE European Russia, above the Arctic Circle. It is the industrial center of the Pechora coal basin. Founded in 1932 as the site of...

Yablonovy Range

(Encyclopedia)Yablonovy Range yäˈblənəvē [key], mountain chain, in Transbaykalia, SE Siberian Russia. Forming part of the watershed between the Arctic and Pacific oceans, it extends c.700 mi (1,130 km) from th...

Cook, Frederick Albert

(Encyclopedia)Cook, Frederick Albert, 1865–1940, American explorer and physician, b. Sullivan co., N.Y. Cook early became interested in the arctic and accompanied the expedition of Robert E. Peary in 1891–92 as...