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Etna
Etna or Aetna , volcano, 10,958 ft (3,340 m) high, on the east coast of Sicily, S Italy. It is the highest active volcano in Europe. The shape and height of its central cone have often been changed by eruptions. There are more than 260 lesser craters on the slopes, formed by lateral eruptions. T...
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Karroo
Karroo or Karoo , the semiarid plateaus of South Africa. The Little Karroo, in Western Cape, is located N of the Langeberg and Outeniqua Ranges and extends c.200 mi (320 km) from east to west at an altitude of 1,000 to 2,000 ft (305-610 m). It is separated from the Great Karroo, in Western C...
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Main
Main , river, c.310 mi (500 km) long, formed near Kulmbach, E central Germany, by the confluence of the Roter Main and the Weisser Main, both of which rise in the Fichtelgebirge. It then winds generally west through the rich farmland of central Germany and past the industrial areas of Schweinfurt, W...
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battle of the Thames
battle of the Thames engagement fought on the Thames River near Chatham, Ont. (Oct. 5, 1813), in the War of 1812 . Gen. William H. Harrison led an American force of about 3,000 against a British army of approximately 400 regulars commanded by Gen. Henry A. Procter, reinforced by 1,000 Native Ame...
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Noah Webster
Noah Webster 1758-1843, American lexicographer and philologist, b. West Hartford, Conn., grad. Yale, 1778. After serving in the American Revolution, Webster practiced law in Hartford. His Grammatical Institute of the English Language, in three parts, speller, grammar, and reader (1783-85), was th...
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Plain of Jars
Plain of Jars region, N Laos, at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera . Over 300 jars, c.1,500 to 2,000 years old, are scattered across its landscape. Averaging 272 lbs (600 kg), the jars range from 3 to 10 ft (1-3 m) in height. Their origin and function remain mysteries. From the mid-1960s...
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South America
South America fourth largest continent (1991 est. pop. 299,150,000), c.6,880,000 sq mi (17,819,000 sq km), the southern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. It is divided politically into 12 independent countries— Argentina , Bolivia , Brazil , Chile , Colombia , Ecuador , G...
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Human Genome Project
Human Genome Project international scientific effort to map all of the genes on the 23 pairs of human chromosomes and, to sequence the 3.1 billion DNA base pairs that make up the chromosomes (see nucleic acid ). Begun in 1990 with the goal of enabling scientists to understand the basis of gene...
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Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean [Lat.,=of Atlas], second largest ocean (c.31,800,000 sq mi/82,362,000 sq km; c.36,000,000 sq mi/93,240,000 sq km with marginal seas).
Physical Geography
Extent and Seas
The Atlantic Ocean extends in an S shape from the arctic to the antarctic regions between North and ...
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Snowdon
Snowdon Welsh Yr Wyddfa, highest mountain of Wales, 3,560 ft (1,085 m) high, Gwynedd, NW Wales. Its five peaks are separated by passes. There is a rack and pinion railway (opened 1896) from Llanberis to the summit. The Snowdon district, or Snowdonia, is noted for its scenic beauty; most of it is ...
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