Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) onager ŏnˈəjər [key] or Persian wild ass, wild ass of central Asia, Equus hemonius onager. Formerly classified as a separate species, it is one of the several subspecies of Asian wild ass (E. hemo...

(Encyclopedia) harp seal, crested earless, or true, seal, Phoca groenlandica, found in the N Atlantic around Greenland and the White Sea. In the spring, harp seals migrate southward to assemble in large groups to br...

(Encyclopedia) Franz Josef Land frăns jōˈzəf, fränts yōˈzĕf [key], Rus. Zemlya Frantsa Iosifa, archipelago, c.6,300 sq mi (16,320 sq km), in the Arctic Ocean N of Novaya Zemlya, Russia. It consists of more t...

(Encyclopedia) Northeast Passage, water route along the northern coast of Europe and Asia, between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Beginning in the 15th cent., efforts were made to find a new all-water route to Ind...

(Encyclopedia) Nakhodka nəkhôtˈkə [key], city (1989 pop. 160,000), Russian Far East, c.20 mi (32 km) E of Vladivostok, on the Sea of Japan. A port city with fewer winter ice problems than Vladivostok, Nakhodka a...

(Encyclopedia) Issyk-Kol or Ysyk Köl both: ēsĭkˈ-ko͞ol [key], lake, E Kyrgyzstan, in the Alatau Mts. At an altitude of c.5,300 ft (1,620 m) and with an area of c.2,400 sq mi (6,220 sq km), it is one of the larg...

(Encyclopedia) Baffin Bay, ice-clogged body of water, c.700 mi (1,130 km) long, between Greenland and NE Canada. It connects with the Arctic Ocean to the north and west and with the Atlantic Ocean to the south by wa...

(Encyclopedia) drumlin drŭmˈlĭn [key], smooth oval hill of glacial drift, elongated in the direction of the movement of the ice that deposited it. Drumlins, which may be more than 150 ft (45 m) high and more than...

(Encyclopedia) Innuitians ĭnyo͞oĭshˈənz [key], mountain range, stretching c.800 mi (1,290 km) through the Arctic Archipelago, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, N Canada. Largely unexplored, the range runs NE f...

(Encyclopedia) crevasse krəvăsˈ [key], large crack in the upper surface of a glacier, formed by tension acting upon the brittle ice. Transverse crevasses occur where the grade of the glacier bed becomes suddenly ...