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Lamproite
Lamproite is a rare ultrapotassic alkaline igneous rock derived from metasomatized lithospheric mantle, one of two rock types hosting economic primary diamonds, recognized after the Argyle discovery in 1979.
Lance Formation
The Lance Formation is a Late Cretaceous rock unit in Wyoming, named for Lance Creek and famous for preserving some of the last dinosaurs before the K–Pg extinction.
Land breeze
A land breeze, also called an offshore breeze, is a coastal wind at night that blows from land toward sea as the land cools faster than water.
Land cover change detection
Land cover change detection is a remote sensing method that identifies differences in the land surface, such as deforestation or urbanization, by comparing images from different dates.
Land surface scheme
A land surface scheme, also called a land surface model, is the component of atmospheric and climate models that simulates heat, water, and carbon exchange between land and atmosphere.
Landform
A landform, also called a terrain feature or physical feature, is a natural surface feature such as a mountain, valley, plateau, or delta, studied by geomorphology.
Landscape evolution model
A landscape evolution model is a numerical simulation that evolves terrain through time by solving equations for erosion, sediment transport, and tectonic uplift, outputting topography, sediment fluxes, and drainage networks.
Landslide
A landslide, also called a land slip, is the movement of rock, debris, or earth down a slope under gravity, ranging from slow creep to fast debris flows.
Langhian
The Langhian is a geologic stage of the Miocene epoch spanning 15.98 to 13.82 million years ago, named by Lorenzo Pareto in 1865 after the Langhe hills of Piedmont, Italy.
Langmuir circulation
Langmuir circulation is a wind-driven pattern of counter-rotating vortices in lakes and the ocean, visible at the surface as parallel streaks of foam called windrows.
Lapilli
Lapilli, meaning "little stones" in Italian, are fragments of lava or rock between 2 and 64 mm across blasted into the air by volcanic explosions, a middle size class of tephra.
Lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli is a deep-blue metamorphic rock composed mainly of lazurite, calcite, and pyrite, prized as a gem and as the source of ultramarine pigment.
Lapse rate
The lapse rate, also called the atmospheric lapse rate, is the rate at which temperature falls with height in the atmosphere; its size measures atmospheric stability.
lapse rate feedback
The lapse rate feedback is a climate feedback in which warming changes the vertical temperature profile, altering radiation to space; it is negative in the tropics.
Laramide orogeny
The Laramide orogeny was a mountain-building episode from about 75 to 40 million years ago that built much of the Rocky Mountains through thick-skinned, basement-cored uplifts.
Large igneous province
A large igneous province (LIP) is a vast accumulation of mostly mafic igneous rock covering over 0.1 million km², emplaced over less than 50 million years.
Large low-shear-velocity provinces
Large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs) are two continent-sized regions of slow seismic waves at the base of Earth's mantle, one beneath Africa and one beneath the Pacific, identified by seismic tomography.
Large woody debris
Large woody debris (LWD), now often called large wood, is logs, root wads, and branches in stream channels large enough to resist immediate transport by the flow.
Larimar
Larimar is a bluish, gem-quality variety of the mineral pectolite, found only in the Dominican Republic, where it was rediscovered in 1974 and made the national stone.
Las Bambas
Las Bambas is a large open-pit copper mine in the Apurímac Region of southern Peru, near Challhuahuacho and about 75 km southwest of Cusco, operated by MMG Limited since 2016.
Las Colinas landslide
The Las Colinas landslide was a fast-moving flow-slide of volcanic soil triggered by the January 13, 2001 El Salvador earthquake, burying a Santa Tecla neighborhood and killing several hundred people.
Laser altimetry
Laser altimetry is a remote sensing method that measures surface elevation from the flight time of laser pulses, used in studies of ice, land, vegetation, and water.
Laser ranging
Laser ranging measures distances by firing short laser pulses at retroreflector-equipped satellites, the Moon, or spacecraft and timing the reflected light, underpinning Earth's reference frame and tests of general relativity.
Last Generation (climate group)
Last Generation, known in German as Letzte Generation, is a climate activist group formed in 2021, famous for road blockades in which members glued themselves to the roadway.
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum was the most recent interval when global ice sheets peaked, about 26,500 to 19,000 years ago, dropping sea level by roughly 130 meters.
Last Glacial Period
The Last Glacial Period, known as the Last Ice Age or Devensian, spanned about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago, when ice sheets grew over North America and northern Eurasia.
Last Interglacial
The Last Interglacial, known in Europe as the Eemian, was the warm period from about 129,000 to 116,000 years ago, when sea level stood several meters higher than today.
Late Antique Little Ice Age
The Late Antique Little Ice Age (LALIA) was a proposed cold interval in the Northern Hemisphere from 536 to about 660 AD, triggered by volcanic eruptions.
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger epoch of the Cretaceous Period, from 100.5 to 66 million years ago, ending with the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs.
Late Paleozoic icehouse
The Late Paleozoic icehouse, also called the Karoo Ice Age, was Earth's longest Phanerozoic ice age, lasting from about 370 to 260 million years ago.