3,546 articles
Valley
Valley: low-lying land between hills or mountains, often drained by a stream. V-shaped when river-carved, U-shaped when glacial, rift valleys where crust splits; example Grand Canyon.
Valley of Elah (עמק האלה)
Valley of Elah (עמק האלה, Emek HaElah), also Wadi es-Sant, a fertile valley in Israel's Shephelah about 14 miles southwest of Jerusalem, the biblical setting of David and Goliath and a Judah-Philistia borderland with sites such as Azekah and Khirbet Qeiyafa.
Valley of Mexico
Valley of Mexico (Valle de México): closed high basin at ~2,240 m holding Mexico City; former lakes drained by 1900; severe aquifer over-pumping causes up to 50 cm/year subsidence and water stress.
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land, named by Abel Tasman in 1642 after Anthony van Diemen, was the British penal colony on Tasmania from 1803, receiving over 72,000 convicts before being renamed Tasmania, proclaimed 1 January 1856.
Vancouver Island
Vancouver Island (Île de Vancouver, Van Isle) is a 460-kilometer island off Canada's Pacific coast, separated from mainland British Columbia by straits, with its capital at Victoria.
Vang Vieng karst
The Vang Vieng karst is a field of Permian limestone tower karst around the town of Vang Vieng in Vientiane Province, Laos, covering about 155 km².
Vangunu Island
Vangunu Island, Solomon Islands (Western Province, New Georgia group): 544 km² volcanic island on Marovo Lagoon, home of the endemic Critically Endangered Vangunu giant rat and the Zaira community conservation area.
Vanua Levu
Vanua Levu, Fiji's second-largest island (about 5,560–5,590 km², ~130,000 people), formerly Sandalwood Island; main towns Labasa and Savusavu; sugar, copra, diving tourism, and the Na Vualiku development program distinguish it.
Varaha Cave
Varaha Cave (Varaha Mandapa, Varaha Cave Temple): seventh-century Pallava rock-cut temple at Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, dedicated to Vishnu as Varaha, traditionally attributed to Narasimhavarman I.
Varful Moldoveanu
Vârful Moldoveanu (Moldoveanu Peak), 2,544 m, is Romania's highest mountain, in the Făgăraș Mountains of the Southern Carpathians, Argeș county. Nicknamed the roof of Romania, it is reached by two-day hikes via Cabana Podragu or Valea Rea, with Viștea Mare on the final ridge.
Vatnajökull (glaciated)
Vatnajökull, Iceland's and Europe's largest ice cap by volume (~7,500 km² in 2023), a temperate ice cap over seven active volcanoes including Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga, subject to jökulhlaups, surges, and rapid climate-driven retreat.
Vauréal Peak
Vauréal Peak (Cap Vauréal) is a roughly 200 m rocky peak at the eastern entrance to Admiralty Bay, King George Island, South Shetland Islands, named by Charcot's 1908-10 expedition, with a Southern Giant Petrel colony and Oligocene-Eocene geology.
Vega Island
Vega Island, an island in the James Ross archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula's Trinity Peninsula, named in 1903 after Nordenskiöld's ship Vega; noted for Maastrichtian fossils including Vegavis and a possible K–Pg boundary section.
Veld
Veld (veldt) is the open, uncultivated grassland, scrub, or savanna countryside of southern Africa, from Afrikaans/Dutch for "field". Covers highveld, bushveld, sourveld types, veldfires, grazing management, and degradation.
Velebit
Velebit is Croatia's longest mountain range (145 km), part of the Dinaric Alps along the Adriatic, highest at Vaganski vrh (1,757 m). A limestone karst range with Lukina Jama (1,431 m deep), Crnopac caves, two national parks, and UNESCO MAB status.
Vella Lavella Island
Vella Lavella Island, Solomon Islands (also Veka Vekalla, Gore Gore): volcanic island in Western Province, most northwestern of the New Georgia Islands; 42 by 19 km, 808 m peak, Nonda lava dome, Vekalo language, 1943 battle and Barakoma airfield.
Velliangiri Mountains (வெள்ளியங்கிரி மலை)
The Velliangiri Mountains (வெள்ளியங்கிரி மலை), also called the Velliangiri Hills, are seven forested peaks in the Western Ghats on the western edge of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, revered as the "Kailash of the South".
Veluwe
The Veluwe is a hilly forest, heath and drift-sand region in Gelderland, the Netherlands, a Saalian push moraine between the Rhine and the former Zuiderzee, home to Veluwezoom and De Hoge Veluwe national parks.
Verblyud Island
Verblyud Island (Kupol Verblyud, Camel Dome) is an uninhabited ice-covered Antarctic island at 70°0′S 15°55′E, rising 200 m above the Lazarev Ice Shelf's east margin in Queen Maud Land; mapped by the USSR in 1961.
Verkhovka Formation
Verkhovka Formation: Ediacaran formation of the Valdai Group on Russia's White Sea coast, between the Lyamtsa and Zimnegory formations, dated about 558–555 Ma and yielding Kimberella, Dickinsonia, Yorgia, and other Ediacaran fossils.
Vero Formation
Vero Formation deposits at the Vero Canal Site (Old Vero Site, 8IR009), Vero Beach, Florida: late Pleistocene sand and silt strata with human bones and extinct megafauna, first reported by Sellards in 1916.
Veryovkina Cave
Veryovkina Cave (Пещера Верёвкина) is a 2,212 m deep limestone cave in the Arabika Massif, Abkhazia, Georgia; with Krubera-Voronja it alternates as the world's deepest known cave.
Vesterålen
Vesterålen, Norwegian island district in Nordland north of Lofoten; five municipalities, 2,512 km², 30,869 people (2026); Møysalen 1,262 m; fishing, whales, Hurtigruten birthplace Stokmarknes.
Vestfonna
Vestfonna: second largest ice cap of Svalbard, on Nordaustlandet at 80°N, covering ~2340 km² with a 630 m summit. Near balance in recent decades; projected equilibrium-line loss between 2043 and 2152 depending on RCP scenario.
Vestvågøya
Vestvågøya (Lófót) is the second largest island of Lofoten, Nordland, Norway, 411 km², holding over 99% of Vestvågøy municipality's people. Known for Leknes, the Borg Viking longhouse, Haukland and Uttakleiv beaches, and E10 road link.
Victoria Peak (landform)
Victoria Peak, a 2,159-2,163 m mountain in the Sutton Range of Vancouver Island, British Columbia; third highest island summit, prominence 1,829 m, official name since 1934, near Warden Peak west of Campbell River.
Victoria Peak (太平山)
Victoria Peak (太平山), 552 m, is the highest point on Hong Kong Island but not of Hong Kong (Tai Mo Shan is taller). Its closed summit, Victoria Gap, Peak Tram (1888, Asia's first funicular), and Peak Tower define the district called The Peak.
Vidarbha (विदर्भ)
Vidarbha (विदर्भ) is the easternmost region of Maharashtra, composed of 11 districts divided into the Nagpur and Amravati divisions, and is known for its agrarian economy and statehood demand.
Vieques, Puerto Rico
Vieques (Isla Nena) is an island municipality of Puerto Rico east of Humacao, population 8,249 (2020). Former U.S. Navy bombing range until 2003, now a Superfund cleanup site and home of Mosquito Bay, the world's brightest bioluminescent bay.
Villarrica
Villarrica (Rukapillán) is Chile's most active stratovolcano, 2,847 m in the Araucanía lake district, an open-vent volcano with a persistent lava lake, 50 eruptions in 500 years, and the tourist towns of Villarrica and Pucón at its foot.