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Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley: fertile Appalachian valley of western Virginia between Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains, drained by the Shenandoah River; karst limestone terrain, Great Warrior Path, Jost Hite's first homestead, wheat economy, 1862 Stonewall Jackson campaign, and $52 billion Virginia agriculture.
Shephelah
The Shephelah, or Judean Foothills, is a belt of low hills in Israel rising to about 1,500 feet, bridging the coastal plain and the Judean Highlands.
Sherbro Island
Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone's largest island (about 600 km2, 51 km long), lies off the southern coast with Bonthe as its main town; known for the Sherbro people, colonial slave-trade ports, fishing, and the planned Sherbro Island City SEZ backed by Idris Elba.
Shetland
Shetland, also known as the Shetland Isles, is a subarctic archipelago of about 100 islands off northern Scotland, mortgaged by Denmark to Scotland in 1469.
Shield (speleothem)
A cave shield, also called a disc, is a rare speleothem of two parallel calcite plates fed by pressurized seepage, growing from walls or ceilings at any angle.
Shikar Beh
Shikar Beh (Shikarbeh) is a 6,200 m ultra-prominent peak in Himachal Pradesh, India, near the Kulu-Lahul divide; first climbed 16 June 1955 by Stewart, Bennet, and Lees of the RAF Mountaineering Association, and namesake of the Shikar Beh Nappe.
Shikoku (四国)
Shikoku (四国) is the smallest of Japan's four main islands, between the Seto Inland Sea and the Pacific, comprising Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, and Kochi prefectures; known for the 88 Temple Pilgrimage and Nankai Trough earthquake hazard.
Shikotan (色丹島)
Shikotan (色丹島, Шикотан) is a 250.6 km² island lying 73.3 km east of Hokkaido's Nemuro Peninsula; Japan claims it, but Russia has administered it since 1945.
Shimbiris
Shimbiris (Shimber Berris), highest mountain of Somalia and Somaliland at 2,460 m (older sources 2,416 m), in the Cal Madow/Golis range of Sanaag near Erigavo; distinct from a well named Shimbibiris in Togdheer.
Shimo Jima
Shimo Jima (Shimoshima, Amakusa Shimoshima) is the largest island of the Amakusa archipelago, Kumamoto, Japan: 575.0 km², eighth largest in Japan, population about 87,200, washed by four seas and linked by bridges.
Shiprock
Shiprock (Tsé Bit'a'í, the rock with wings) is a sacred volcanic neck on the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico, a 30-million-year-old minette breccia plug about 600 m high with six radiating dikes; climbing has been banned since 1970.
Shir Kuh
Shir Kuh (شیرکوه, Lion Mountain) is a 4,050–4,055 m ultra-prominent peak in Yazd Province, central Iran, 40 km southwest of Yazd; the province's highest point, a Jurassic granite batholith summit.
Shiretoko
Shiretoko (知床), a peninsula in northeastern Hokkaido, Japan, and its surrounding Sea of Okhotsk waters; a 71,100 ha UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2005 under criteria (ix) and (x), defined by seasonal sea ice at the lowest latitude in the northern hemisphere.
Shishaldin
Shishaldin (Sisquk, Agajedan) is a 2,857 m symmetrical basaltic stratovolcano on Unimak Island in the eastern Aleutians, Alaska's Aleutian arc's highest peak, one of its most active volcanoes, with major eruptions in 1999, 2019-2020, and 2023.
Shishapangma (希夏邦马峰)
Shishapangma (希夏邦马峰), also Shisha Pangma or Gosainthan, is Tibet's 8,027 m peak, the 14th highest and only eight-thousander entirely in China; first climbed 2 May 1964, last of the 14 to be climbed.
Shkhara
Shkhara (შხარა), Georgia's highest peak on the Caucasus watershed, surveyed at 5,193.2 m in 2010 though 5,068–5,203 m are also quoted; first climbed 1888, third-highest in Europe after Elbrus and Dykh-Tau.
Shoal
Shoal: a natural underwater sand ridge, bank, or bar shallower than surrounding water, and a hazard to navigation charted by hydrographic surveys; also a fish group.
Shore
Shore: the land at the edge of a sea, lake, or other large water body, from low water mark to the highest wave reach; distinct from coast (regional scale) and beach (sandy).
Show cave
A show cave is a natural cave fitted with pathways, artificial lighting, and admission fees for guided public tours; a 2022 survey identified 1,223 in 95 countries.
Siachen Glacier
Siachen Glacier, eastern Karakoram glacier, second longest outside the polar regions; since India's 1984 Operation Meghdoot the world's highest battlefield, disputed by India and Pakistan, with ceasefire since 2003, heavy waste pollution, and accelerating negative mass balance.
Siargao
Siargao: island group in Surigao del Norte, northeastern Mindanao, Philippines, famed for the Cloud 9 surf break and the Siargao Island Protected Landscape and Seascape (SIPLAS). Known for surfing tourism, the country's largest mangrove forest, and Typhoon Odette (Rai) recovery.
Siberut
Siberut, the largest and northernmost Mentawai Island off western Sumatra, Indonesia; 4,480 km², indigenous Mentawai majority, UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1981, four endemic primates, and a locked megathrust section last ruptured in 1797.
Sichuan Basin
Sichuan Basin (四川盆地), large closed sedimentary basin in southwest China covering Sichuan and Chongqing, ~260,000 km², ~500 m elevation. Superimposed foreland basin, major Chinese natural gas province, "Land of Abundance," cradle of Ba-Shu civilization.
Sicily
Sicily (Sicilia), the largest Mediterranean island at 25,426 km² with about five million people, an autonomous Italian region home to Mount Etna, Europe's largest active volcano, seven UNESCO World Heritage sites, and a layered Greek, Arab, Byzantine, and Norman history.
Sidemount diving
Sidemount diving: scuba configuration carrying cylinders at the diver's sides instead of the back, originated in cave diving, offers independent redundant gas and in-water tank clipping, but requires regulator switching.
Sidoarjo mud flow
The Sidoarjo mud flow, known in Indonesia as Lumpur Lapindo or Lusi, is a mud volcano eruption in East Java, Indonesia, that began in May 2006 and continues today.
Sierra Blanca
Sierra Blanca (New Mexico) is an eroded mid-Tertiary volcanic complex and massif in the Sacramento Mountains, highest peak of southern New Mexico at about 12,000 ft, sacred to the Mescalero Apache and home to Ski Apache.
Sierra Blanca Peak
Sierra Blanca Peak (White Mountain), 11,973 ft, Otero County, New Mexico; state's most prominent peak (5,533 ft), Mescalero Apache sacred mountain, home of Ski Apache.
Sierra El Viejo
Sierra El Viejo (Cerro Viejo, Sierra del Viejo) is a limestone mountain range near Caborca in northwestern Sonora, Mexico, 850 m high, with Precambrian rocks, bighorn sheep, and endemic agaves; distinct from a 3,500 m Nuevo León namesake.
Sierra Madre (Philippines)
The Sierra Madre is the longest mountain range in the Philippines, running 540 kilometers along Luzon's eastern coast across 10 provinces, holding about 40 percent of the country's forest cover.