Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

sea urchin

(Encyclopedia)sea urchin, spherical-shaped echinoderm with movable spines covering the body. The body wall is a firm, globose shell, or test, made of fused skeletal plates and marked by regularly arranged tubercles...

sea walnut

(Encyclopedia)sea walnut, common name for some members of the phylum Ctenophora, whose members are also called comb jellies. ...

sea whip

(Encyclopedia)sea whip, erect colony of marine animals of the phylum Cnidaria, with whiplike branches. The skeleton consists of a horny axis, overlaid with small calcareous bodies called spicules. Often beautifully...

Sivash Sea

(Encyclopedia)Sivash Sea sēväshˈ [key] or Putrid Sea, salt lagoon, c.1,000 sq mi (2,590 sq km), extending along the northeastern coast of Crimea. It is separated—except at the Genichesk Strait—from the Sea o...

Banda Sea

(Encyclopedia)Banda Sea bănˈdə, bänˈdä [key], section of the Pacific Ocean, c.600 mi (970 km) long and c.300 mi (480 km) wide, E Indonesia, outlined by the South Molucca islands. The deepest point is c.24,000...

Jordan, river, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, river, c.200 mi (320 km) long, formed in the Hula basin, N Israel, by the confluence of three headwater streams and meandering S through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; the region of Pales...

Arabah

(Encyclopedia)Arabah or Araba both: äˈräbä, ărˈəbə [key], depression, on the Israel-Jordan border, extending c.100 mi (160 km) from the Dead Sea S to the Gulf of Aqaba; part of the Great Rift Valley complex...

Zin

(Encyclopedia)Zin, in the Bible, wilderness through which the Israelites wandered, SW of the Dead Sea.

Sodom

(Encyclopedia)Sodom sŏdˈōmə [key], in the Bible, the principal of the Cities of the Plain (the others being Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar, which was spared) destroyed by fire from heaven because of their w...

Siddim

(Encyclopedia)Siddim, in the Bible, locale of the battle of the kings, said to mean the valley of the Dead Sea.