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White Cliffs of Dover
The White Cliffs of Dover, also called the Dover white cliffs, are chalk sea cliffs in Kent, England, stretching about 10 miles between Folkestone and Walmer.
White Mtn. Peak
White Mountain Peak (Tos-toya), California fourteener in the White Mountains, Mono County; about 14,245-14,252 ft, ~7,193 ft prominence, 67.4 mi isolation, highest point of the range and county, with a UC research summit hut.
White Pass
White Pass names two Pacific Northwest passes: a 4,500-foot US 12 crossing of the Washington Cascades kept open year-round, and the 2,865-foot Klondike gold rush trail summit from Skagway, Alaska, into Yukon, crossed by the White Pass & Yukon Route railway.
Whitehaven Beach
Whitehaven Beach: 7 km of 98% pure white silica sand on Whitsunday Island, Whitsundays, Queensland, Australia; boat-access-only national park beach, Ngaro sea country, named world's best beach for 2025 by Lonely Planet.
Whitsunday Island (island, Australia)
Whitsunday Island, largest of the 74 Whitsundays islands off Queensland, Australia; home of Whitehaven Beach and Hill Inlet, Ngaro traditional land, protected in Whitsunday Islands National Park, boat access only.
Whitsunday Islands
The Whitsunday Islands are over 90 continental islands off central Queensland, part of the Cumberland group, within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Six national parks, Ngaro occupation for 9,000 years, Whitehaven Beach, humpback calving grounds, access from Airlie Beach.
Whitten Peak
Whitten Peak (Argentine form Whitten, monte) is a peak in Antarctica at 63°25'S, 57°04'W, a SCAR Peak (2d) named for Robert Wakeham Whitten, Eagle's first officer in Operation Tabarin (1944-45).
Wiencke Island
Wiencke Island: Antarctic island in the Palmer Archipelago, 16 mi long, between Anvers Island and the Antarctic Peninsula; named for seaman Carl-August Wiencke, who died on the Belgica expedition in 1898.
Wild Coast
The Wild Coast (Transkei) is a 250 km rugged, undeveloped coastline in South Africa's Eastern Cape, a former apartheid homeland, Xhosa heartland, site of the 1 km coastal development ban, Xolobeni mining and Shell seismic-survey litigation, and growing illegal sand mining.
Wildspitze
Wildspitze (Ötztaler Wildspitze), 3,768 m south summit, is a glaciated double-summit peak in the Ötztal Alps, Tyrol, Austria's second highest mountain after Großglockner, first climbed in 1848 by Leander Klotz, with 2,261 m prominence.
Wilhelmina Mountains
Wilhelmina Mountains (Wilhelminagebergte), mountain range in Sipaliwini District, central Suriname, culminating at Juliana Top, Suriname's highest point (1,230 or 1,280 m); discovered 1901, mostly within the Central Suriname Nature Reserve.
Wilkins Coast
Wilkins Coast: section of the east coast of Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula, from Cape Agassiz to Cape Boggs at 69°40'S 63°00'W, named for aviator Sir Hubert Wilkins after his 1928 Antarctic flight.
Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley: broad river valley in western Oregon between the Coast Range and Cascades, extending about 150 miles from the Columbia River to the Calapooya Divide; Oregon's population and agricultural heartland, shaped by Missoula Floods, Kalapuyan burning, wheat and grass seed farming, and Pinot Noir wine.
Windward Islands
The Windward Islands are the southern Lesser Antilles group: Dominica, Martinique, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, with Barbados often included. Named for trade-wind exposure, they form a volcanic island arc where the Atlantic plate subducts beneath the Caribbean plate.
Wirral Peninsula
Wirral Peninsula: land between the Mersey and Dee estuaries and Liverpool Bay in north-west England, about 60 square miles; Norse-settled, home of Birkenhead Park (1847) and the 1886 Mersey Railway, now under Wirral Council's 2025 Local Plan.
Woodville Karst Plain Project
Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP), founded 1987 and incorporated 1990, is a Florida non-profit of technical cave divers exploring and mapping the flooded caves of North Florida's 700 km2 Woodville Karst Plain, holding records such as a 25,766 ft penetration and the seven-mile Turner Sink to Wakulla Springs traverse.
Woody Island (South China Sea)
Woody Island (Yongxing Dao, 永兴岛; Vietnamese: Đảo Phú Lâm) is the largest Paracel Island, occupied by China since 1974, housing Sansha City, a 2,700 m airstrip, HQ-9 missiles, and over 1,000 residents.
Wordie Ice Shelf
Wordie Ice Shelf, former ice shelf in Marguerite Bay, west Antarctic Peninsula, named for James M. Wordie; peaked near 2,200 km2 in 1966, retreated from 1966, and vanished by about 2004, leaving Wordie Bay.
Wrangel Island
Wrangel Island (Ostrov Vrangelya) is a 7,608 km2 Russian Arctic island and 2004 UNESCO World Heritage site, unglaciated in the Quaternary, with the largest Pacific walrus population, densest polar bear dens, and mammoths surviving to about 4,000 years ago.
Wrangell
Mount Wrangell is a 4,317 m andesitic shield volcano in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska, the only active volcano in the Wrangell volcanic field, with an ice-filled summit caldera, fumaroles, and steam plumes but no confirmed historical eruptions.
Wrangell Island
Wrangell Island, Alaska: island in the Alexander Archipelago, Inside Passage, home to the City and Borough of Wrangell near the Stikine River mouth; 42 miles long, Tlingit homeland, timber-to-tourism economy, 2023 fatal landslide.
Wrangell Mountains
The Wrangell Mountains are a volcanic range in southern Alaska hosting the Wrangell volcanic field, with active Mount Wrangell (4,317 m), northward-accreted terranes, and extensive glaciers in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
Wright Island
Wright Island, Antarctica: ice-covered island 65 km long on the Bakutis Coast, Marie Byrd Land, at 74°02'S 116°50'W; named by US-ACAN for Admiral Jerauld Wright; distinct from Wright Islands in British Columbia, Ontario, Tennessee, and Oregon.
Wulongqing Formation
Wulongqing Formation, Lower Cambrian Stage 4 rock unit in Yunnan, China, hosting the Burgess Shale-type Guanshan Biota and abundant trace fossils, overlying the Hongjingshao Formation.
Wuyi Mountains
Wuyi Mountains (武夷山), range on the Fujian-Jiangxi border, southeast China; Mount Wuyi is a mixed UNESCO World Heritage Site (1999) for subtropical forest, Nine-Bend River gorges, and Neo-Confucianism; also a Biosphere Reserve and 2021 national park.
Wuzhi Shan
Wuzhi Shan (五指山, Five Finger Mountain), central Hainan's highest range; its 1,867 m second peak is Hainan's tallest point, source of the Nandu, Changhua, and Wanquan rivers, core of Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park and Li and Miao cultural heartland.
Wyck Island
Wyck Island is a small Antarctic island at 64°39'S 62°05'W, near Brooklyn Island in Wilhelmina Bay off Graham Land, discovered by the 1897-99 Belgian expedition under Gerlache; also recorded as Van Wyck Island.
Xiangxi UNESCO Global Geopark
Xiangxi UNESCO Global Geopark, Hunan, China; 2,710 km2 karst geopark designated 2020; two Cambrian GSSPs (Guzhangian, Paibian), world's largest red stone forest, Tujia and Miao heritage.
Xiaozhai Tiankeng (小寨天坑)
Xiaozhai Tiankeng (小寨天坑), the Heavenly Pit, is Earth's deepest and largest sinkhole, in Fengjie County, Chongqing, China: 662 m deep, 626×537 m across, 119.35 million m³, a double-nested collapse tiankeng over Difeng Cave.
Xuebao Ding
Xuebao Ding (雪宝顶, Shar Dung Ri) is a 5,588 m peak in Songpan County, Sichuan, the highest of the Min Shan, an ultra (2,057 m prominence) with China's easternmost glaciers, first climbed in 1986.