3,546 articles
Kuwohi
Kuwohi (formerly Clingmans Dome), Cherokee for "mulberry place," is a 6,643-foot peak, the highest in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Tennessee, renamed from Clingmans Dome by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names in September 2024.
Kvaløya
Kvaløya (Sállir, old name Salarøy), island in Tromsø municipality, Norway; 737 km², fifth largest mainland island, 13,030 inhabitants (2018), highest point Store Blåmann 1,044 m; distinct from the smaller Kvaløya in Finnmark.
Kvitøya
Kvitøya (Vidön), the easternmost island of Svalbard at 80°N, 682 km², nearly all ice-covered, part of Nordaust-Svalbard Nature Reserve; site of the 1897 Andrée balloon expedition's fatal last camp, found in 1930.
Kwaikans Island
Kwaikans Island, once mapped as Watson Island and locally called Reject Island, is a small official-named island off the northwest side of Masset Inlet, Graham Island, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, named by George Mercer Dawson in 1878.
Kwajalein Atoll
Kwajalein Atoll is a coral atoll in the Ralik chain of the Marshall Islands, one of the world's largest, hosting the U.S. Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site.
Kyrkjeskipet Peak
Kyrkjeskipet Peak, named from the Norwegian for "the church nave," is a 3,085 m peak in the eastern Mühlig-Hofmann Mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, ranking among the region's highest summits.
Kyushu (九州)
Kyushu (九州) is Japan's third largest main island, in the southwest, covering 42,231 km² across 2,160 islands and seven prefectures from Fukuoka to Kagoshima, with active volcanoes, major agriculture, and growing inbound tourism.
Kyzyl Kum
Kyzyl Kum (Qizilqum, Qyzylqum, "Red Sand") is a ~300,000 km² sand desert of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan between the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, southeast of the Aral Sea, mostly stabilized dunes, Karakul pasture, Gazli gas, Muruntow gold.
La Brenne
La Brenne: wetland natural region in Indre, Centre-Val de Loire, France; Ramsar site 518 (140,000 ha, 1991) with about 3,000 medieval carp ponds; regional nature park renewed 2026.
La Colonia Formation
The La Colonia Formation is a Late Cretaceous to Paleogene marine rock unit in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina, known for its rich fossil vertebrates and plants.
La Gomera
La Gomera, Canary Island west of Tenerife: 370 km², 1,487 m peak, Garajonay National Park laurel forest (UNESCO 1986), Silbo Gomero whistled language, Peraza lordship from 1478, Gomeran Rebellion 1488.
La Grotte de la Ciotat? No—Sea caves of Baja California
The sea caves of Baja California are coastal caves carved by waves into the peninsula's rock, notable dive sites near La Paz and Cabo San Lucas.
La Huérguina Formation
La Huérguina Formation (Formación La Huérguina), Upper Barremian limestone unit in Serranía de Cuenca, Spain, hosting the Las Hoyas Konservat-Lagerstätte: ~126 Ma freshwater wetland, ~20,000 soft-tissue fossils, ~250 species, 25% endemic.
La Mancha
La Mancha is a natural and historical region of central Spain, an elevated, largely flat plateau spanning parts of Toledo, Albacete, Cuenca, and Ciudad Real provinces.
La Marmora
Punta La Marmora (Perdas Carpìas), 1,834 m in the Gennargentu massif, is Sardinia's highest peak, named for general-naturalist Alberto Ferrero della Marmora; Paleozoic schist summit in Arzana and Desulo.
La Palma
La Palma is the north-westernmost island of Spain's Canary Islands, a volcanic Atlantic island of 708 km² known for its laurel forests and the 2021 Tajogaite eruption.
La Verna cave
La Verna (Salle de la Verna) is a giant chamber in the Gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin, Sainte-Engrâce, France; 255×245 m, 3.65 million m³, Europe's largest, discovered 1953, open to the public since 2010.
Lagotellerie Island
Lagotellerie Island, Marguerite Bay, Antarctic Peninsula; ASPA 115 (formerly SPA 19), 1.58 km2 island protected for its Antarctic flowering plants, Adélie penguin and Imperial Shag colonies, and rich invertebrate fauna.
Laiyang Formation
Laiyang Formation, part of the Laiyang Group, Early Cretaceous lacustrine fossil-bearing unit in the Laiyang Basin, Shandong, China; Hauterivian–Barremian, about 130 Ma, yielding Lycoptera fish, insects, and plants of the Laiyang Jehol Biota.
Lake Cerknica
Lake Cerknica (Cerkniško jezero) is an intermittent karst lake in southwestern Slovenia, the largest in the country, which floods for up to 8 months a year and is a Ramsar wetland.
Laktionov Island
Laktionov Island is an Antarctic island at 65°46′S 65°46′W off the Antarctic Peninsula coast, listed in the USGS and SCAR gazetteers and named for Soviet oceanographer A.F. Laktionov.
Lalla-Khadîdja
Lalla-Khadîdja (لالة خديجة, Kabyle Tamgut) is a 2,308 m limestone peak in Bouira Province, Algeria, the highest summit of the Djurdjura Range and the Tell Atlas, with 1,720 m prominence and an August pilgrimage tradition.
Lama (landform)
Lama (plural lame) is an incised valley landform of the Murge karst, Apulia, Italy; example Lama Lamasinata, a fluvio-karstic valley distinct from Lake Lama in Siberia and the Lama soil series.
LAMO-SHE
Lamo-she (田海子山) is a 6,070 m mountain in the Daxue Shan of Sichuan, China, the highest summit of the Tatsienlu Massif east of Kangding, first climbed in 1993.
Lampedusa
Lampedusa (Lampidusa in Sicilian) is Italy's southernmost island, a 20.2 km² calcareous Pelagian island between Sicily and Tunisia, known for Rabbit Beach tourism and as Europe's main migrant landing point.
Lanai
Lanai (Lānaʻi), sixth-largest Hawaiian island, 141 sq mi extinct volcano in Maui County; Dole pineapple plantation 1922-1992, once world's largest; 98% owned by Larry Ellison since 2012; economy now tourism.
Land reclamation
Land reclamation creates new land from seas or lakes by filling with sand or by diking and drainage (polders). Key examples: Singapore (28% reclaimed land), Dubai's Palm Jumeirah, Shanghai's Lingang; costs typically under €500/m², with significant environmental impacts.
Land tied island
Land tied island: an island joined to the mainland or another island by a tombolo, a wave-built sand or shingle bar; examples include Portland, Tyre, and Stockton Island.
Land's End
Land's End (Penn an Wlas) is a granite headland in west Cornwall, the most south-westerly point of mainland Britain, with 61 m cliffs, the 874-mile John O' Groats signpost, Longships Lighthouse views, and a Heritage Great Britain visitor complex.
Landeyran Formation
Landeyran Formation: Lower Ordovician (Floian) mudstone unit, 200-400 m thick, Montagne Noire, southern France; hosts the Cabrières Biota Lagerstätte and trilobite zones Apatokephalus incisus and Hangchungolithus primitivus.