Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Tiruchirapalli trĭchĭnŏˈpəlē [key], city (1991 pop. 711,862), Tamil Nadu state, SE India, on the Kaveri River. It is a district administrative center and an important educational, religious, and...

(Encyclopedia) Pennebaker, D. A. (Donn Alan Pennebaker), 1925–2019, pioneering documentary filmmaker, b. Evanston, Ill. His first film, Daybreak Express (1958), is a five-minute short detailing New York's doomed T...

(Encyclopedia) Cashel kăˈshəl [key] [Irish,=castle], town, Co. Tipperary, S central Republic of Ireland. ...

(Encyclopedia) concretion, mass or nodule of mineral matter, usually oval or nearly spherical in shape, and occurring in sedimentary rock. It is formed by the accumulation of mineral matter in the pore spaces of the...

(Encyclopedia) quartzite, usually metamorphic rock composed of firmly cemented quartz grains. Most often it is white, light gray, yellowish, or light brown, but is sometimes colored blue, green, purple, or black by ...

(Encyclopedia) talus tāˈləs [key], deposit of rock fragments detached from cliffs or mountain slopes by weathering and piled up at their bases. A talus is a common geologic feature in regions of high cliffs. The ...

(Encyclopedia) spring, in geology, natural flow of water from the ground or from rocks, representing an outlet for the water that has accumulated in permeable rock strata underground. Some of the water that falls as...

(Encyclopedia) Bowie, David, 1947–2016, British rock-and-roll singer and songwriter who successfully, merged rock, art, and fashion, b. London as David Robert Jones. After singing with five different bands in the ...

(Encyclopedia) well, aperture in the earth's surface through which substances in a natural underground reservoir, such as water, gas, oil, salt, and sulfur, can flow or be pumped to the surface. In the United States...

(Encyclopedia) lava läˈvə [key], molten rock that erupts on the earth's surface, either on land or under the ocean, by a volcano or through a fissure. It solidifies into igneous rock that is also called lava. Bef...