3,546 articles
Darién Gap
The Darién Gap, in Spanish Tapón del Darién, is a roadless stretch of rainforest and swamp on the Colombia–Panama border, the only break in the Pan-American Highway.
Darling Range
The Darling Range is an undulating plateau east of Perth, Western Australia, bounded by the 250-300 m Darling Scarp and Darling Fault, developed on Yilgarn granites with lateritic bauxite, jarrah forest, Perth water catchments, and Alcoa's Huntly and Willowdale mines.
Darvaza gas crater
Darvaza gas crater (Door to Hell, Gates of Hell, Shining of Karakums): a burning natural-gas pit in Turkmenistan's Karakum Desert, about 60-70 m wide and 30 m deep. Formed by drilling collapse (1963 or 1971); satellite data show the fire began in 1987-1988 and emissions exceed 900 kt of methane.
Darwin Island
Darwin Island names two islands honoring Charles Darwin: the largest of the Danger Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula (charted by Ross, 1842) and Culpepper Island, the northernmost Galápagos island near Wolf Island.
Dashennongjia
Dashennongjia (大神农架, Ta-shen-nung-chia) is a high mountain in Shennongjia Forestry District, western Hubei, in the eastern Daba Mountains; elevations in sources range from 3,019 to 3,100 m, with 2,270 m prominence, and it anchors the core area of Shennongjia National Nature Reserve.
Dasht-e Kavir
Dasht-e Kavir (Kavir-e Namak, Great Salt Desert) is Iran's largest desert, a roughly 77,000-80,000 km2 salt-flat basin on the central plateau east-southeast of Tehran, formed from an ancient evaporated ocean with salt layers up to 7 km thick and about 50 salt diapirs.
Dasht-e Margo
Dasht-e Margo (دشت مارگو), also written Dasht-i Margo, is a desert plain in southwestern Afghanistan between the Helmand and Khash Rud rivers, largely waterless and uninhabited.
Dau Peninsula
Datu Peninsula (Tanjung Datu), westernmost tip of Sarawak, Malaysia, on the Borneo Indonesia border; home to Tanjung Datu National Park, 1,379 ha, gazetted 1994, with turtle beaches, primates, and Telok Melano village.
Daufuskie Island
Daufuskie Island: 5,200-acre boat-only South Carolina sea island southwest of Hilton Head, Gullah Geechee heritage, 1982 National Register historic district, plantation and oyster history, erosion and ferry access.
Dauphin Island, Alabama
Dauphin Island is a 14-mile barrier island in Mobile County, Alabama, guarding Mobile Bay; Alabama's only barrier island, with French colonial history, Fort Gaines, tourism, and major restoration efforts.
Dave Shaw
Dave Shaw (David John Shaw), Australian technical diver and Cathay Pacific pilot, set a 270 m rebreather record at Boesmansgat in 2004, found Deon Dreyer's remains, and died in 2005 recovering them.
Davis Coast
Davis Coast: northwest coast of Graham Land, Antarctic Peninsula, from Cape Herschel to Cape Kjellman, named for seal captain John Davis of New Haven. Distinct from Davis Sea and Australia's Davis station, named for John King Davis.
Daxue Shan
Daxue Shan (大雪山, Great Snow Mountain) names several mountains: a 3,500 m ultra-prominent Yunnan peak in Yongde County dividing the Nu and Lancang rivers, the Sichuan range with Mount Gongga, and Taiwan's 3,530 m Daxueshan.
Dean Island
Dean Island is an ice-covered Antarctic island, 37 km long and 19 km wide, within the Getz Ice Shelf between Grant and Siple islands; sighted from USS Glacier in 1962 and named for S.L. Dean, distinct from a British Columbian namesake.
Death Valley
Death Valley, California, is a desert valley in eastern California and the hottest and lowest national park in North America, holding the world heat record of 134 °F.
Deccan Plateau
The Deccan Plateau is the large volcanic tableland of peninsular India, also called the Deccan Traps region, from Sanskrit Dakshina (the South). Flood basalts cover nearly half the peninsula; eastward-sloping terrain drains via the Godavari into black regur cotton soils.
Deception Island
Deception Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica: an active horseshoe-shaped volcano around the flooded caldera Port Foster, entered via Neptune's Bellows; site of the largest Holocene Antarctic eruption (VEI 6), 1967–1970 eruptions, and an Antarctic Specially Managed Area.
Dee Island
Dee Island, a small crescent-shaped Antarctic island off the north side of Greenwich Island in the South Shetland Islands, English Strait; charted and named in 1935 by Discovery II personnel, with a 260 m peak at its south end.
Dejima (出島)
Dejima (出島, Deshima) is an artificial fan-shaped island in Nagasaki harbor, built 1634–1636 to confine Portuguese traders and the VOC's Japanese factory from 1641 to 1859, Japan's sole European trade window.
Delaite Island
Delaite Island (Delaire Ile, Isla Delaite) is an island in Wilhelmina Bay, Danco Coast, Antarctic Peninsula, west of Nansen Island at 64°34'S 62°12'W, charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1898 and named for sponsor Julien Delaite.
Delicate Arch
Delicate Arch is a free-standing natural sandstone arch in Arches National Park, Utah, with a 46-foot-high opening, known as an iconic emblem of Utah since its 1992 license-plate debut.
Delmarva Peninsula
Delmarva Peninsula, also called the Eastern Shore, is a 180-mile East Coast peninsula spanning Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic, with thick coastal-plain aquifers and migrating barrier islands.
Demirkazik Tepe
Demirkazık Tepe (Demirkazik Tepesi), the 3,756 m limestone peak of Aladağlar in Niğde, Turkey; first climbed 1927, once thought the range's highest until GPS showed Kızılkaya at 3,771 m.
Denali
Denali (Koyukon Deenaalee, 'the high one'), also federally named Mount McKinley, is North America's highest peak at 20,310 ft (6,190 m) in the Alaska Range; first climbed 1913, renamed Denali 2015, reverted 2025.
Dendtler Island
Dendtler Island: ice-covered Antarctic island, 26 km long, in the eastern Abbot Ice Shelf between Farwell Island and Fletcher Peninsula at 73°01'S 90°13'W; named 1968 for Major Robert Dendtler of Operation Deep Freeze; also claimed by the Westarctica micronation.
Denison
Mount Denison is an ice-covered, poorly studied stratovolcano in Katmai National Park on the Alaska Peninsula, Alaska, part of the Denison-Steller-Kukak-Devils Desk chain; no Holocene eruptions documented, not seismically monitored.
Denisova Cave (Денисова пещера)
Denisova Cave (Денисова пещера) is a karst cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, the type locality of the Denisovans, with DNA-bearing deposits spanning 300,000 years and fossils of Denisovans, Neanderthals, and a hybrid child.
Depression
Depression: in geography, land lower than its surroundings (Dead Sea, Qattara, cryptodepressions); in meteorology, a mid-latitude low-pressure weather system with fronts.
Đeravica
Đeravica (Gjeravica, Ђеравица), Kosovo's highest peak at 2,656 m, in the Bjeshkët e Nemuna (Accursed Mountains) of western Kosovo near the Albanian border; second highest of the Prokletije and Dinaric Alps after Jezercë.
Derinkuyu underground city
Derinkuyu Underground City (Derinkuyu Yeraltı Şehri) is a multi-level rock-cut refuge in Cappadocia, Nevşehir Province, Turkey, about 85 m deep with eight levels open, 52 ventilation shafts, rolling stone doors, and an estimated capacity of 20,000 people.