Waters and hydrographic features

Kennedy Channel

Kennedy Channel, a section of Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island, named for U.S. Navy Secretary John Pendleton Kennedy; sighted ice-free by Morton in 1854 during Kane's expedition.

Kentucky Bend, also called Madrid Bend or New Madrid Bend, is a nine-person exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, cut off by a Mississippi River oxbow after the 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes, reachable only through Tennessee.

Kerala backwaters

The Kerala backwaters, also called the Backwaters of Kerala, are a network of canals, lakes, and lagoons stretching over 900 kilometers along India's Malabar Coast, best known for houseboat cruises and tourism.

Kerama Ridges

Kerama Ridges, an undersea ridge in the Kerama Gap southwest of Okinawa in the Ryukyu Arc, Philippine Sea; GEBCO gazetteer feature, 75 x 90 km, relief 3,010 m, discovered 1997 by survey vessel Takuyo.

Kerch Strait

Kerch Strait, the sole passage between the Black Sea and Sea of Azov between Crimea and the Taman Peninsula; site of the 2018 naval incident, the 19-km Kerch Bridge, and the 2026 UNCLOS arbitration between Ukraine and Russia.

Kerguelen Plateau

The Kerguelen Plateau is a large, mainly volcanic submarine plateau in the southern Indian Ocean, formed by the Kerguelen mantle plume and carrying the Kerguelen Archipelago and Heard and McDonald Islands.

Kermadec Ridge

The Kermadec Ridge is the active submarine volcanic arc east of New Zealand, part of the 2,500 km Tonga-Kermadec system formed by subduction of the Pacific plate.

Kermadec Trench

Kermadec Trench: oceanic trench north of New Zealand where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Australian Plate; deepest point Scholl Deep, about 10,106 m; explored by Galathea (1952), NIWA (2017), and Fendouzhe crewed dives (2022).

Kern River

Kern River: about 165-mile southern Sierra Nevada river flowing from near Mount Whitney to Bakersfield; only major Sierra river draining south; subject of Lux v. Haggin and Isabella Dam.

Khanjar Ridge

Khanjar Ridge is a named undersea ridge in the Arabian Sea, listed as type Ridge in the Marine Regions gazetteer near the Oman Basin and Murray Ridge; its name echoes the khanjar, Oman's national dagger emblem.

Khanka

Khanka (Ozero Khanka; Xingkai Hu, 興凱湖) is a large shallow transboundary freshwater lake on the China-Russia border, largest in Northeast Asia, about 4,380 km², Ramsar site 112, draining via the Song'acha to the Ussuri.

Khantayskoye

Khantayskoye (Хантайское озеро, Kutaramo) is a deep freshwater lake on the southern Taimyr Peninsula, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia: 822 km², 420 m maximum depth, third deepest in Russia, part of the Ust-Khantayskoye Reservoir.

Khar-Us

Khar-Us (Khar-Us Nuur, Хар-Ус нуур) is Mongolia's second largest freshwater lake, in the Great Lakes Depression, Khovd Province; shallow, glacier-fed by the Khovd River, a Ramsar site, national park, and 2024 UNESCO biosphere reserve, distinct from a smaller same-named lake in Uvs Province.

Khatanga Gulf

Khatanga Gulf (Khatanga Bay, Хатангский залив) is a large tidal estuary of the Khatanga River in the southwestern Laptev Sea off the Taymyr Peninsula, Russia, known for intense tidal mixing, an unusually large river plume, ice cover October to July, and Rosneft's Khatangsky oil license area.

Kherlen

Kherlen (Хэрлэн гол), transboundary river of eastern Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, China; rises in the Khentii Mountains, runs 1,264 km east into Hulun (Dalai) Lake, its main water source; undammed, grassland steppe basin.

Kheta

Kheta (Хета) is chiefly a 785 km river in Krasnoyarsk Kray, Russia, the left headstream of the Khatanga; the name also denotes a Magadan Oblast stream, a village, the Egyptian name of the Hittites, and Sanskrit Khetak of Kheda.

Khopyor

Khopyor (Хопёр) is a 979 km Russian river, the Don's largest left tributary, flowing through Penza, Saratov, Voronezh, and Volgograd oblasts; snow-fed, unregulated, with the Khopyorsky Nature Reserve on its floodplain.

Khor Abu Habil Inner Delta

Khor Abu Habil Inner Delta: Sudanese inland wetland (Ramsar Site no. 2485, 946,409 ha, designated 10 April 2022) 400 km southwest of Khartoum, formed by a seasonal river from the Nuba Mountains, with mayas pools and migratory waterbirds.

Khorat Plateau (Mekong)

Khorat Plateau (Mekong), FEOW freshwater ecoregion 727 in Thailand and Laos: the 155,000 km2 Khorat Plateau drained by the Mun River into the Mekong, with nearly 50 endemic fish species and critically endangered Mekong giant catfish.

Khövsgöl Nuur

Khövsgöl Nuur (Khuvsgul, Hovsgol), Mongolia's deepest lake, a 383 km³ alpine lake in the Baikal Rift Zone holding ~70% of Mongolia's freshwater, draining via the Eg River to Lake Baikal.

Khuran Straits

Khuran Straits (Khouran Straits, Tang-e-Khuran), shallow straits between Qeshm Island and mainland Iran in the Persian Gulf; 100,000 ha Ramsar site no. 50 (1975) with the Gulf's largest Avicennia marina mangrove and mudflat ecosystem, strong tidal currents up to 1.85 m/s, and major waterbird colonies.

Khyargas Nuur

Khyargas Nuur (Хяргас нуур), a large brackish endorheic lake in Mongolia's Great Lakes Depression, terminal sink of Altai-Khangai meltwater; second-largest brackish lake, with dated paleoshorelines to +129 m (MIS 5c).

King Frederick VI Coast

King Frederick VI Coast, or Kong Frederik den VI Kyst, is the fjord-indented southeastern coast of Greenland, named by W.A. Graah in 1829 after King Frederik VI.

King George Bay

King George Bay is a bay indenting the south coast of King George Island, South Shetland Islands, between Lions Rump and Turret Point; named 24 January 1820 by Bransfield's expedition for the reigning British sovereign.

Kissimmee River

Kissimmee River, central Florida river flowing to Lake Okeechobee; channelized 1962-1971 into the C-38 canal, then restored 1999-2021 by backfilling 22 miles of canal and reconnecting 44 miles of historic channel.

Klarälven

Klarälven (Trysilelva in Norway) is a 460 km river flowing from the Norwegian fells through Värmland, Sweden, into Lake Vänern at Karlstad. Sweden's last log-driving river until 1991, now regulated by 11 hydropower dams and used for timber raft tourism.