Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Arbuckle Mountains

(Encyclopedia)Arbuckle Mountains ärˈbŭkəl [key], range of low, rolling hills, rising c.700 ft (210 m) above the prairie, S Okla.; remnant of mountains formed in the Precambrian. Interesting geological formation...

Giant's Causeway

(Encyclopedia)Giant's Causeway, headland on the north coast of Moyle dist., N Northern Ireland, NE of Coleraine; est. as a national trust territory in 1961. Extending 3 mi (4.8 km) along the coast, it consists of t...

Sedgwick, Adam

(Encyclopedia)Sedgwick, Adam, 1785–1873, English geologist. He was a professor at Cambridge from 1818. His most important work was a study, made with R. I. Murchison, of the rock formation of Devonshire, which th...

Avery Island

(Encyclopedia)Avery Island, salt dome, 163 ft (50 m) high and 2 mi (3.2 km) in diameter, S La., in an area of sea marshes and swamps. A corporation controlled by the Avery and McIlhenny families owns the island. Ho...

Oban

(Encyclopedia)Oban ōˈbən [key], town (1991 pop. 8,000), Argyll and Bute, W Scotland, on the Firth of Lorn. A port and seaside resort, its circular bay makes a fine yacht basin. Highland Games are held there each...

Northwich

(Encyclopedia)Northwich nôrthˈwĭch [key], town (1991 pop. 32,664), Cheshire West and Chester, W central England, at the confluence of the Weaver and Dane rivers. Northwich was once the center of England's salt p...

Page, Thomas Nelson

(Encyclopedia)Page, Thomas Nelson, 1853–1922, American author and diplomat, b. Hanover co., Va. His novels and stories are sentimental idealizations of the Old South. Among his novels are On Newfound River (1891)...

Adam's Peak

(Encyclopedia)Adam's Peak, Sinhalese Sri Padastanaya and Samanaliya, mountain, 7,360 ft (2,243 m) high, S central Sri Lanka. It is a sacred mountain, famous as a goal of pilgrimage for Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslim...

hyrax

(Encyclopedia)hyrax hīˈrăks [key], name for rabbit-sized mammals of Africa and SW Asia comprising the family Procavidae. Although rodentlike in appearance, hyraxes are hoofed mammals, or ungulates (see Chordata)...

Canadian Shield

(Encyclopedia)Canadian Shield or Laurentian Plateau lôrĕnˈchən [key], U-shaped region of ancient rock, the nucleus of North America, stretching N from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean. Covering more than hal...