Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

419 results found

Kotelny Island

(Encyclopedia)Kotelny Island kōtĕlˈnē [key], largest island of the Anjou group of the New Siberian Islands, c.100 mi (160 km) long and c.60 mi (100 km) wide, off N Siberian Russia. The island was sighted in 177...

Etah

(Encyclopedia)Etah ēˈtə [key], abandoned village, NW Greenland, on Smith Sound, opposite Ellesmere Island. The Eskimo tribe discovered there by John Ross in 1818 is known as the Polar Eskimo and was studied by R...

Mawson, Sir Douglas

(Encyclopedia)Mawson, Sir Douglas, 1882–1958, Australian antarctic explorer and geologist, b. England. His first geographical expedition was to the New Hebrides Islands as a geologist in 1903. As a member of the ...

Horton

(Encyclopedia)Horton, river, c.275 mi (440 km) long, rising in a lake N of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada, and flowing NW to Franklin Bay, a part of the Beaufort Sea. ...

midnight sun

(Encyclopedia)midnight sun, phenomenon in which the sun remains visible in the sky continuously for 24 hr or longer, occurring only in the polar regions. The midnight sun is due to the fact that the plane of the ea...

Norman Wells

(Encyclopedia)Norman Wells, village (1991 pop. 627), Northwest Territories, Canada, on the Mackenzie River, W of Great Bear Lake. It is the center of an oil region. In 1985 a pipeline to the south was completed. ...

Mars, in astronomy

(Encyclopedia)Mars, in astronomy, 4th planet from the sun, with an orbit next in order beyond that of the earth. Mars has two natural satellites, discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. The innermost of these, Phobos...

milkwort

(Encyclopedia)milkwort, common name for the Polygalaceae, a family including herbs, shrubs, and trees found in all parts of the world except New Zealand and the polar regions. Several milkworts (genus Polygala), pe...

Great Bear Lake

(Encyclopedia)Great Bear Lake, largest lake of Canada and fourth largest of North America, c.12,275 sq mi (31,800 sq km), c.190 mi (310 km) long and from 25 to 110 mi (40–177 km) wide, Northwest Territories, on t...

Albert the Bear

(Encyclopedia)Albert the Bear, c.1100–1170, first margrave of Brandenburg (1150–70). He was a loyal vassal of Holy Roman Emperor Lothair II, who, as duke of Saxony, helped him take (1123) Lower Lusatia and the ...
 

Browse by Subject