3,546 articles
Aegina (Αίγινα)
Aegina (Αίγινα), Greek island in the Saronic Gulf near Piraeus, second largest of the Saronic islands, 82.63 km², Mount Oros 532 m; first capital of modern Greece, home of the Temple of Aphaia and PDO pistachio.
Aeolian Islands
Aeolian Islands (Isole Eolie): seven volcanic islands off Sicily, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000 that gave volcanology the Vulcanian and Strombolian eruption types.
Afognak Island
Afognak Island, second largest island of the Kodiak Archipelago, Alaska (700 sq mi, 40 by 25 miles). Alutiiq homeland, 1892 forest reserve, site of Afognak Village destroyed by the 1964 earthquake and tsunami, relocated to Port Lions.
Agaléga
Agaléga: twin coral islands of Mauritius about 1,000 km north of Port Louis, 26 sq km, 330 people, coconut economy, OIDC-administered; site of an India-funded 3 km airstrip and jetty inaugurated in 2024, disputed as a possible Indian military facility.
Agassiz Ice Cap
Agassiz Ice Cap, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada; large high Arctic ice cap (~17,300–21,000 km²) named for Louis Agassiz; official since 1967; ice cores show recent melt highest in 4200 years.
Agua
Volcan de Agua (Hunahpu), a 3,760 m dormant Guatemalan stratovolcano near Antigua; no historical eruptions, but its 1541 lahar destroyed Ciudad Vieja, first capital, killing over 600.
Aguilera
Aguilera (Volcán Aguilera) is a 2,546 m dacitic stratovolcano in the southernmost Chilean Andes, part of the Austral Volcanic Zone, whose large eruption around 1253 BCE left a widespread ash layer used to date Patagonian sediments.
Ahmar Mountains
Ahmar Mountains: mountain range of the Ethiopian Highlands in eastern Oromia, Ethiopia; also called Chercher. Average elevation 2,965 m; highest peak Gara Muleta 3,381 m; east-west chain toward the Gulf of Aden.
Aiguille du Midi
The Aiguille du Midi is a 3,842 m granite peak above Chamonix, France, whose cable car, opened in 1955, carries hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.
Ailsa Craig
Ailsa Craig is an uninhabited volcanic microgranite island in the Firth of Clyde, 16 km west of Girvan, Scotland, source of Blue Hone and Common Green curling stone granite, site of an 1886 Stevenson lighthouse, and an RSPB seabird reserve with a major gannet colony.
Air Force Island
Air Force Island: uninhabited island in Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada, in northeastern Foxe Basin between Baffin Island and Prince Charles Island; area 1,863.34 km², coastline 239.15 km, name official since 1949.
Aïr Mountains
Aïr Mountains: volcanic and crystalline massif in northern Niger's Agadez region, southeastern Tuareg shield, rising to about 2,000 m; Sahelian ecological island in the Ténéré desert, home to addax and dama gazelle, World Heritage since 1991.
Ajanta Caves (अजिंठा लेणी)
The Ajanta Caves (अजिंठा लेणी) are thirty rock-cut Buddhist caves in a cliff above the Waghora River in Maharashtra, India, inscribed by UNESCO in 1983.
Ak Tag
Ak Tag (四岔雪峰, Sicha Xuefeng) is a 6,748 m peak in the Altun Shan, Xinjiang, China, the range's highest point, with 1,920 m prominence; first climbed 1 September 2012 by the Swedish climber Corax from the south.
Aka-dake
Aka-dake (赤岳), 2,899 m, is the highest peak of the Yatsugatake range on the Nagano–Yamanashi border, a Hyakumeizan and ultra-prominent summit (about 1,916 m) known for chain-and-ladder ridges, summit huts, and winter climbing near Tokyo.
Akandanayama
Akandanayama (アカンダナ山) is a 2,109 m andesitic stratovolcano with a summit lava dome on the Nagano-Gifu border, Honshu, part of the Yakedake volcano group; it erupted between 11.6 and 2.3 ka with no historical activity.
Akchâr
Akchâr (Akchar) is a large active erg, or sand sea, in northwestern Mauritania: a 400 km northeast-southwest dune belt from the Adrar cliffs to the Atlantic, the western continuation of the Erg Chech.
Akimiski Island
Akimiski Island, largest island in James Bay, Nunavut, Canada (Cree 'the land across'); uninhabited 3,001 km² wetland island, Migratory Bird Sanctuary since 1941, disputed Cree Aboriginal title.
Akpatok Island
Akpatok Island: uninhabited Ordovician limestone island, largest in Ungava Bay, Nunavut, Canada (903 km2). Hosts one of the world's largest Thick-billed Murre colonies, over 20% of Canada's population; IBA NU007, no statutory protection.
Akrabou Formation
The Akrabou Formation is an Upper Cretaceous carbonate rock formation in southeastern Morocco, dating to the Cenomanian and Turonian and famous for exceptionally preserved, often three-dimensional fossil fishes.
Akutan Island
Akutan Island (Akutanax̂) is a volcanic island in the eastern Aleutians' Krenitzin group, 35 miles east of Unalaska, home to Akutan Volcano (1,303 m, last eruption 1992), the City of Akutan, and North America's largest seafood plant.
Al Ḩajar al Gharbī
Al Ḩajar al Gharbī (الحجر الغربي), the Western Hajar, is the western section of Oman's Al Hajar Mountains, divided from the Eastern Hajar by Wadi Samail, containing Jabal Shams (~3,000 m) and the Jebel Akhdar massif.
Al Ḩajar ash Sharqī
Al Ḩajar ash Sharqī (الحجر الشرقي, Eastern Hajar) is the eastern section of Oman's Al Hajar Mountains, running over 200 km from the Sumail Gap toward Ras Al Hadd; limestone karst range with peaks near 2,100 m, Arabian tahr habitat, and the Sirrin Biosphere Reserve.
Al Hajar Mountains
Al Hajar Mountains (جبال الحجر): 700 km arcuate range in NE Oman and NE UAE, highest peak Jabal Shams 3,009 m; formed by Late Cretaceous Semail Ophiolite obduction and renewed uplift from 40 Ma, a reptile-endemicity hotspot and water source for Oman's aflaj.
Alaid
Alaid is the highest and northernmost volcano of the Kuril Islands, a basaltic stratovolcano forming uninhabited Atlasova Island off southern Kamchatka, with its last confirmed eruption in 2022.
Alaska & Canada Pacific Coastal
Alaska & Canada Pacific Coastal, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 103, Nearctic temperate coastal rivers from southeastern Alaska through British Columbia to northwestern Washington; main rivers Copper, Fraser, Skagit; endemic Vancouver lamprey.
Alaska Peninsula
Alaska Peninsula: mainland extension of southwest Alaska between the Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, ending in the Aleutian Islands. Aleutian volcanic arc, Aniakchak caldera, Area M salmon fisheries, Katmai brown bears, Unangax̂ and Alutiiq homelands.
Alaska Range
The Alaska Range is a 600-mile mountain arc across southern Alaska, highest at Denali (Mount McKinley), 20,310 ft, North America's tallest peak, uplifted along the active Denali fault and heavily glaciated.
Alataw Mountains
Alataw Mountains (Alatau, Alatao, 阿拉套山), Turkic for Mottled Mountain Range, a range in the western North Tianshan, northern Bole–Wenquan area, Xinjiang, China, known for Carboniferous adakites, Nb-enriched arc basalts, and 306–267 Ma granites.
Albanian Alps
Albanian Alps (Alpet Shqiptare, Bjeshkët e Nemuna, Prokletije): mountain range between the Dinaric and Pindus systems across Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro; highest peak Jezerca 2,694 m; Albanian Alps National Park covers 82,844.65 ha since 2022.