3,546 articles
Ritacuba Blanco
Ritacuba Blanco (Rita Uwa Blanco), highest peak of Colombia's Sierra Nevada del Cocuy and the Cordillera Oriental at about 5,330-5,410 m; first climbed 1942 by Augusto Gansser; its monitored glacier has lost 67% of its area since 1955.
Roanoke Island
Roanoke Island: island in Dare County, North Carolina, between Roanoke and Croatan Sounds, not a barrier island; site of the 1585 and 1587 English colonies including the Lost Colony, home to Manteo and Wanchese.
Roatán
Roatán is the largest of Honduras's Bay Islands, about 65 km offshore between Útila and Guanaja, on the Mesoamerican Reef. Known for diving, cruise tourism (1.27 million cruise passengers in 2018), English-Spanish bilingual culture, and recent coral loss from the 2023–2025 bleaching event.
Robben Island
Robben Island, in Table Bay about 11 km off Cape Town, served as a prison, hospital, and military base from the 17th to 20th centuries; its apartheid-era maximum security prison held Nelson Mandela for 18 years, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Robert Island
Robert Island (South Shetland Islands) is an 18 km-wide, ice-capped Antarctic island between Nelson and Greenwich Islands, sighted in 1819 and named for the brig Robert; also Ostrov Polotsk.
Robertson Island
Robertson Island: ice-covered Antarctic island, 13 mi long and 6 mi wide, at the east end of the Seal Nunataks off the Antarctic Peninsula; discovered by C.A. Larsen in 1893 and named for William Robertson of Hamburg.
Robinson Crusoe Island
Robinson Crusoe Island (Isla Robinson Crusoe), formerly Más a Tierra, is a 48 km² Chilean island in the Juan Fernández Archipelago, 650 km offshore, famed for endemic flora, Selkirk's 1704–1709 marooning, and 1935 national park status.
Robinsons Island
Robinsons Island (Rustico Island), a barrier island in Prince Edward Island National Park, Canada, farmed by the Robinson family in the 1800s and now eroding rapidly into the Gulf of St. Lawrence; distinct from Robinson Crusoe Island, Chile.
Rock desert
A rock desert is a desert surface dominated by bare rock or stones rather than sand, including flat hamada plateaus and gravelly reg plains, which cover nearly half of desert terrain.
Rock of Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar, also called Mons Calpe, is a 6-km limestone promontory at the southern tip of Iberia, a British territory and nature reserve rising 1,396 ft.
Rock shelter
A rock shelter is a shallow, open recess beneath a rocky overhang at the base of a cliff, long used by humans for shelter, work, art, and burial.
Rockall
The granite islet of Rockall lies 162.7 nautical miles west of St Kilda; it is subject to annexation disputes and fisheries conflicts between the UK and other nations.
Rockefeller Plateau
Rockefeller Plateau is the interior ice plateau of Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, east of the Shirase and Siple coasts, with much of its surface 1,000 to 1,500 meters above sea level.
Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains (the Rockies): North America's largest mountain system, over 100 named ranges running about 4,800 km from New Mexico to the Bering Sea, formed mainly by the Laramide orogeny about 70 million years ago.
Rodrigues
Rodrigues, also called Rodrigues Island, is a 108 km2 autonomous volcanic island of Mauritius in the Mascarenes, 650 km northeast of Mauritius, named for Diogo Rodrigues (1528), French from 1735, British from 1809, autonomous since 2001.
Rogers Pass (British Columbia)
Rogers Pass, a 1,330 m pass in Glacier National Park, British Columbia, carries the Trans-Canada Highway and Canadian Pacific Railway; site of the world's largest mobile artillery avalanche control program (Operation PALACI).
Rogue Valley
Rogue Valley, southwestern Oregon valley along the 215-mile Rogue River, centered on Bear Creek Valley towns Medford and Ashland. Home of Takelma, Shasta, and Athapascan peoples, site of the 1855-1856 Rogue River War and removal to Siletz; now a warm-climate wine region with over 70 grape varieties.
Rohilkhand
Rohilkhand, also called Katehr, is a fertile plain in northwestern Uttar Pradesh, India, named after the Rohilla Afghans who ruled it in the 18th century until the 1774 Rohilla War and the 1801 British cession.
Rohtang Pass (रोहतांग दर्रा)
Rohtang Pass (रोहतांग दर्रा), also called Rohtang La, is a 3,978 m Himalayan pass on the eastern Pir Panjal range, 51 km from Manali, linking Kullu Valley with Lahaul-Spiti; seasonal, permit-controlled, bypassed by the 9.02 km Atal Tunnel.
Romeral
Romeral, a stratovolcano in Caldas, Colombia, at the northern end of the Ruiz-Tolima chain; elevation 3858 m (SGC), last confirmed eruption 5390 BCE (VEI 4), green alert, active at rest; not to be confused with the Romeral fault system or the Chilean town.
Romualdo Formation
The Romualdo Formation is an Early Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) rock formation in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil, part of the Santana Group, renowned for its exceptionally preserved fossils.
Rongé Island
Rongé Island (De Rongé, Ile) is a rugged 5-mile Antarctic island at 64°43'S, 62°41'W, largest on the west side of Errera Channel, Graham Land; discovered 1897–99 by de Gerlache's Belgian expedition, named for Madame de Ronge; gentoo and chinstrap penguin colonies.
Rongelap Atoll
Rongelap Atoll, Marshall Islands coral atoll contaminated by the 1954 Castle Bravo fallout; its people were evacuated, resettled in 1957, left again in 1985, and resettlement remains contested.
Roosevelt Island
Roosevelt Island, formerly Blackwell's Island and Welfare Island, is a two-mile-long East River island in Manhattan, New York City, once home to prisons and hospitals, now a residential community with the Cornell Tech campus, the 1976 aerial tramway, and a master lease running to 2078.
Rosamel Island
Rosamel Island (Isla Rosamel), also called Christmas Island, is a 435 m Antarctic island in the southeast entrance of Antarctic Sound between Andersson and Dundee islands, charted by d'Urville's expedition in 1838 and named for Baron de Rosamel.
Roseberry Topping
Roseberry Topping is a 1,049 ft (320 m) hill at Newton-under-Roseberry, North Yorkshire, shaped by a geological fault and a 1912 ironstone mine collapse; National Trust cared for, with ten paths under £700,000 restoration.
Rosenthal Islands
Rosenthal Islands, group of about 80 small islands off west Anvers Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica; charted by Dallmann 1873/74, named for Albert Rosenthal; Restricted Zone in ASMA 7 with penguin colonies.
Rosh HaNikra grottoes (מערות ראש הנקרה)
The Rosh HaNikra grottoes (מערות ראש הנקרה) are sea caves worn by the Mediterranean into white chalk cliffs on Israel's northern coast, near the border with Lebanon.
Roslagen
Roslagen is the coastal and archipelago region of Uppland, Sweden, north of Stockholm; name from the medieval rowing district Roden, known for Walloon ironworks, seafaring, and 15,000 islands.
Ross Ice Shelf
Ross Ice Shelf: Earth's largest ice shelf, ~477,000 km², in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Cold-water shielded, slow-melting, discovered 1841 by James Clark Ross; base for Amundsen's 1911 polar expedition.