3,546 articles
Erg Iguidi
Erg Iguidi, a Saharan sand sea (erg) stretching from Algeria into Mauritania, with dunes often over 500 m wide and tall, fed by the Oued Daoura near the Eglab massif.
Erromango
Erromango: large forested volcanic island, largest in Vanuatu's Tafea Province (also called third or fourth largest in the archipelago), area 888-902 km², population about 2,000, known for sandalwood, hardwood forests, and 1774 Cook landing.
Esjufjoll
Esjufjöll (Esjufjoll) is a subglacial central volcano under SE Vatnajökull, Iceland, north of Öræfajökull, with a ~40 km² caldera, no confirmed Holocene eruptions, an uncertain 1927 event, and 2002 tremor unrest.
Esker
Esker (Irish eiscir; also osar, ås): long sinuous ridge of stratified sand and gravel deposited by meltwater in subglacial or englacial tunnels, up to 200 m high and hundreds of kilometres long; used for aggregate, aquifers, and mineral exploration.
Espiritu Santo (island, Vanuatu)
Espiritu Santo (Santo), Vanuatu's largest island in the South Pacific, holds Mount Tabwemasana (1,879 m) and Luganville. Contacted by Queirós in 1606; US WWII base Base Button from 1942; kava and cattle economy.
Eternity Range
Eternity Range (Eternidad, cadena), mountain range in Palmer Land, Antarctic Peninsula, 28 nautical miles long, rising to 3,239 m, trending north–south near 69°46′S 64°34′W, first sighted by air.
Ethiopian Highlands
Ethiopian Highlands: uplifted flood-basalt plateau of Ethiopia, split by the Rift Valley, source of 86% of Nile flow at Aswan, home to endemic wildlife and site of major land degradation and restoration programs.
Etolin Island
Etolin Island, Alaska: 32-mile-long island in the Alexander Archipelago between Wrangell and Prince of Wales islands, named for Russian-American governor Adolph Etolin; Tongass forest, 1990 South Etolin Wilderness, 1987 elk introduction.
Etosha pan (landform)
Etosha Pan is a roughly 4,730 km² salt pan in northern Namibia, the central feature of Etosha National Park. A remnant Pliocene lake cut off by river diversion, it floods rarely, hosts flamingo breeding, and is a major Southern Hemisphere dust source.
Eurasian Steppe
Eurasian Steppe, the world's largest temperate grassland belt, stretching from Central Europe across Kazakhstan and Mongolia to northern China; grassland, pastoralism, Silk Road of the Steppes, land degradation and drying trends.
Europa Island
Europa Island (Île Europa), largest of the French Scattered Islands at 30 km², is a low coralline atoll in the Mozambique Channel, a TAAF territory with major green turtle and seabird colonies and a 127,300 km² EEZ.
Ewing Island
Ewing Island: ice-covered, dome-shaped Antarctic island, 8 mi across, off the Antarctic Peninsula east coast at 69°54'S 61°13'W; discovered by air in 1947 by Ronne's RARE and named for Columbia geophysicist Maurice Ewing.
Executive Committee Range
Executive Committee Range: five-volcano chain in Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, along 126°W; discovered 1940 by the US Antarctic Service and named for its Executive Committee; Mount Sidley, 4,285 m, is Antarctica's highest volcano.
Exmouth Plateau
Exmouth Plateau: large submerged continental block off northwest Australia, part of the Northern Carnarvon Basin; ~600 km long, 800-4,000 m deep, rifted from Gondwana, hydrocarbon-rich, ODP Legs 122-123 drilled it.
Exploration of Krubera Cave
Krubera Cave, also called Voronja, is a cave in Abkhazia that became the deepest known cave on Earth in 2001, first explored past 2,000 m in 2004.
Exploration of Lechuguilla Cave
The exploration of Lechuguilla Cave, in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, transformed a small dead-end pit into one of the world's longest caves after a 1986 breakthrough.
Exploration of Sistema Sac Actun
Exploration of Sistema Sac Actun, a flooded cave near Tulum, Mexico, began in 1987; after a 2018 connection with Dos Ojos it briefly ranked as the world's longest underwater cave.
Extraterrestrial lava tubes
Extraterrestrial lava tubes are subsurface channels left by flowing lava on bodies other than Earth, found on the Moon and Mars and considered possible shelters for future explorers.
Exuma
Exuma is a chain of 365 islands in the Bahamas, divided into Great Exuma, Little Exuma, and the Exuma Cays, known for the swimming pigs of Big Major Cay, the 1958 Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, George Town, and regatta sailing.
Eyjafjallajökull
Eyjafjallajökull, also called Eyjafjalla glacier, is an ice-covered stratovolcano in southern Iceland whose 2010 eruption produced fine ash that closed most European airspace for about a week.
Eysturoy
Eysturoy, the east island, is the second-largest of the Faroe Islands (286.9 km², about 11,000 people), home to Slættaratindur, the highest peak, and linked to Tórshavn by the Eysturoyartunnilin with the world's first undersea roundabout.
Fair Isle
Fair Isle: remote Shetland island, 24 miles from mainland, about 60 residents, 761 hectares. Famous for its bird observatory (founded 1948 by George Waterston), Fair Isle knitting, and its £45.4M ferry replacement project.
Falesia
Falesia (falaise): Italian term for a steep sea-cliff cut by marine erosion; also Praia da Falésia in Algarve, the ancient port Falesia near Piombino, and Italian climbing crags.
Falso Azufre
Falso Azufre (Cerro Falso Azufre), a 5,906 m complex volcano on the Chile-Argentina border in the Central Andean Volcanic Arc; no known Holocene eruptions, 387 km2 massif built 0.9-0.5 Ma.
Farallon Islands
Farallon Islands: rocky Pacific archipelago about 28 miles west of San Francisco, a 211-acre national wildlife refuge hosting the largest seabird colony in the continental U.S. south of Alaska, site of the 1863 Egg Wars.
Farallones de Citara
The Farallones de Citará, also written Farallones del Citará, is a peak in Colombia's Cordillera Occidental, located in southwestern Antioquia. It stands 4,050 m.
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands (Føroyar) are 18 volcanic North Atlantic islands, a self-governing part of Denmark under the 1948 Home Rule Act, with 54,149 people, Tórshavn as capital, and a fisheries-dominated economy outside the EU.
Farwell Island
Farwell Island names two places: an ice-covered island and ice rise at 72°49'S 91°10'W in the Abbot Ice Shelf, Ellsworth Land, Antarctica, and a 1 m elevation islet in Calhoun County, Texas, near Pass Cavallo and Espiritu Santo Bay.
Fatagar
Fatagar (Amharic: ፈጠጋር), also spelled Fetegar, was a medieval Ethiopian region and possible Muslim sultanate on the Awash river, contested from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.
Faure Peak
Faure Peak: Antarctic summit, 3,940 m, in the Wisconsin Range, Horlick Mountains, at 85°42'S 128°35'W; named for geologist Gunter Faure of Ohio State University, USARP expeditions 1964–1995.