Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

344 results found

Laon

(Encyclopedia)Laon läN [key], commercial town (1990 pop. 28,670), capital of Aisne dept., N France. It has forges, a printing plant, and factories that make heating equipment and metal goods. Situated on a rocky h...

hogback

(Encyclopedia)hogback, sharp-crested ridge with steep slopes on both sides, formed by the erosion of steeply tilted rock layers. Hogbacks are commonly formed along the eroded flanks of large, tightly folded anticli...

grackle

(Encyclopedia)grackle, common name applied to some members of the New World family Icteridae, which also includes blackbirds, orioles, meadowlarks, cowbirds, and others. The plumage of the purple, or common, grackl...

Iguaçu Falls

(Encyclopedia)Iguaçu Falls or Iguassú Falls both: ēgwəso͞oˈ [key], in the Iguaçu River, on the Argentina-Brazil border near the Paraguay line. Iguaçu Falls has two main sections that are composed of hundred...

alpine plants

(Encyclopedia)alpine plants, high-altitude representatives of various flowering plants (chiefly perennials) that because of their dwarf habit, profuse blooming, and the preference of many for shady places are culti...

East River

(Encyclopedia)East River, tidal strait, 16 mi (26 km) long and 600–4,000 ft (183–1,219 m) wide, connecting Upper New York Bay and Long Island Sound, New York City, and separating the boroughs of Manhattan and t...

Monk, Thelonius

(Encyclopedia)Monk, Thelonius (Thelonius Sphere Monk), 1917–82, American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, b. Rocky Mount, N.C. Monk is considered one of the most important, and eccentric, figures in modern j...

Kíthira

(Encyclopedia)Kíthira sĭthērˈə [key], island (1991 pop. 3,021), c.109 sq mi (282 sq km), S Greece, in the Mediterranean Sea, southernmost of the Ionian Islands, off the S Peloponnesus. Mostly rocky with many s...

Hardangerfjord

(Encyclopedia)Hardangerfjord härdängˈərfyôrˈ [key], second largest fjord of Norway, penetrating 114 mi (183 km) from the Atlantic Ocean into Hordaland co., SW Norway. A southern branch, the Sørfjord, cleaves...

Fort Union

(Encyclopedia)Fort Union, trading post of the American Fur Company, erected in 1828 near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers, on the Mont.-N.Dak. line; it controlled converging routes of travel fr...