Landforms and terrestrial features

Walbeck (Weferlingen) Formation

Walbeck (Weferlingen) Formation: Maastrichtian quartz arenite (WAu, WAo) at Walbeck near Weferlingen, Saxony-Anhalt, in the Aller Valley Structure; a glass sand overlying Zechstein salt, distinct from the Paleocene Walbeck fossil fissure site.

Wales Island

Wales Island: name of several Canadian islands, chiefly a 35-square-mile island on the British Columbia North Coast near Portland Inlet and Prince Rupert, and an uninhabited island off the Melville Peninsula in Nunavut's Committee Bay.

Walgreen Coast

Walgreen Coast: Antarctic coast of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, between Cape Herlacher and Cape Waite on the Amundsen Sea; discovered February 1940 from USS Bear and named for Charles R. Walgreen.

Wallowa Mountains

Wallowa Mountains: granitic fault-block range in northeastern Oregon's Blue Mountains province, nicknamed Oregon's Alps. Home to Eagle Cap Wilderness (565 sq mi), glacial Wallowa Lake moraines, and the accreted Wallowa terrane island arc.

Wapiti Formation

Wapiti Formation: Upper Cretaceous non-marine rock unit in west-central and northwestern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia, Canada, ~79.5-67 Ma, equivalent to the Belly River to Battle succession; distinct Eocene volcanic Wapiti Formation in Wyoming's Absaroka Supergroup.

Wasatch Range

The Wasatch Range is a Utah-Idaho mountain range on the western edge of the Middle Rocky Mountains, uplifted along the active Wasatch fault, supplying snowmelt water to the Wasatch Front and facing high wildfire and earthquake hazard.

Watkins Island

Watkins Island, formerly Mikkelsen Island, is one of the largest of the Biscoe Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula at 66°22'S 67°05'W, surveyed by the BGLE 1935-36 and renamed for Arctic explorer Gino Watkins (1907-32).

Watzmann

Watzmann: 2,713 m massif in the Berchtesgaden Alps, Bavaria; highest mountain entirely on German soil, with Hocheck, Mittelspitze, and Südspitze summits, an 1,800 m east face, and a famous three-peak ridge traverse.

Wauwermans Islands

Wauwermans Islands: northernmost island group of the Wilhelm Archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula, charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1898 and named after Lieut. Gen. H. Wauwermans of Antwerp; islands named for Canterbury Tales characters.

Waziristan (وزیرستان)

Waziristan (وزیرستان), mountainous Pakistani region on the Afghan border, named for the Wazir tribe; formerly two FATA agencies, North and South Waziristan, now merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Wedge Mtn.

Wedge Mtn. (Wedge Mountain), 2,891 m, is the highest peak in Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC, east of Whistler; named 1932 over 'Mount Vancouver', first recorded ascent by Neal Carter and Charles Townsend, 10 September 1923.

Weeki Wachee Springs

Weeki Wachee Springs, also called Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, is a first-magnitude spring in Hernando County, Florida, known for live mermaid shows since 1947.

Weeks Formation

Weeks Formation: Cambrian rock unit in the House Range, Utah, named by Walcott in 1908; overlies the Marjum and underlies the Orr Formation, and is a Burgess Shale-type Konservat-Lagerstätte preserving soft-bodied Cambrian animals.

Welchness

Welchness (Cabo/Punta Welchness) is a gravel-spit cape at 63°29'S 56°15'W, the west extremity of Dundee Island, Antarctica; charted 1893, named for Dundee whaler Capt. George Welch, and site of Argentina's Petrel Base.

Well of Souls (بئر الأرواح)

The Well of Souls (Bir al-Arwah, بئر الأرواح) is a partly natural, partly man-made cave beneath the Foundation Stone under Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock, tied to soul and Ark traditions but with no archaeological evidence of a Temple chamber.

Wellington Island

Wellington Island (Isla Wellington), a large continental island in Chile's Patagonian archipelago west of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, mostly within Bernardo O'Higgins National Park; its only settlement is Puerto Edén, home to a Kawésqar community.

Wensleydale Beacon

Wensleydale Beacon is a 110 m hill just north of Fumarole Bay on the west side of Port Foster, Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, at 62°57′S 60°42′W, with variant name Wensley Beacon.

West Falkland

West Falkland (Gran Malvina), second largest Falkland Island, about 4,500 km2, site of the 1690 first recorded landing and the British settlement of Port Egmont (1765); main settlements Fox Bay and Port Howard.

West Siberian Plain

West Siberian Plain (Western Siberian Lowland): vast flat lowland from the Urals to the Yenisei, Arctic Ocean to Kazakh Hills; about 2.6-2.93 million km2, world's largest unbroken lowland, huge peatlands and Russia's main oil and gas basin.

Western Amazon Piedmont

Western Amazon Piedmont (FEOW ecoregion 313): freshwater ecoregion on the eastern Andean foothills across Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, from the Apaporis to the Marañón drainages, with over 100 endemic fish species and dourada catfish spawning migrations.

Western Cave Conservancy

Western Cave Conservancy (WCC), all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded 2002 in Newcastle, California, protects western US caves via preserves (Weller, Volcano, Catacombs), agency MOUs, restoration, and grants up to $2,500.

Western Desert

Western Desert of Egypt, also called the Egyptian Libyan Desert, the Sahara region west of the Nile covering about 681,000 km², with the Siwa, Bahariya, Farafra, Dakhla, and Kharga oases, the Great Sand Sea, and the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System.

Western Ghats

Western Ghats (Sahyadri, पश्चिमी घाट): 1,600 km mountain chain along India's west coast across six states, a UNESCO World Heritage biodiversity hotspot with 325+ threatened species, monsoon barrier, and subject of a long-running 56,825.7 sq km Eco-Sensitive Area notification dispute.

Western Mongolia

Western Mongolia is FEOW freshwater ecoregion 622, an endorheic basin region covering Uvs Nuur, the Great Lakes Valley, and the Hovd and Zavkhan rivers, with about 75% endemic fish and rapid warming.

Western Plateau

Western Plateau: largest landform region of Australia, covering roughly half to two-thirds of the continent across Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory; flat, arid Precambrian craton with the Great Victoria, Great Sandy, Gibson, Simpson and Tanami deserts.