2,436 articles
Lake Winnipesaukee
Lake Winnipesaukee is New Hampshire's largest lake, a glacial, dam-raised 44,600-acre water body with about 250 islands, 240 miles of shoreline, an oligotrophic main body, and a major tourism economy.
Lakes Argyle and Kununurra
Lakes Argyle and Kununurra: Ramsar-listed artificial freshwater wetlands on the Ord River in the East Kimberley, Western Australia, formed by the 1963 Diversion Dam and 1972 Argyle Dam; Lake Argyle is Australia's second-largest freshwater lake and a major freshwater crocodile and waterbird refuge.
Lallemand Fjord
Lallemand Fjord, the largest embayment on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula (66°50′–67°20′S), named by Charcot's 1909 expedition for Charles Lallemand; hosts the Müller Ice Shelf and a key Holocene paleoclimate sediment record showing deglaciation before 8000 yr BP, a mid-Holocene optimum, and a Little Ice Age ice shelf advance.
Langeled pipeline
The Langeled pipeline is a Norwegian subsea gas pipeline carrying gas from Nyhamna, via Sleipner, to Easington, England; it was the world's longest at completion in 2006.
Laptev Sea
The Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean off Siberia, between the Taymyr Peninsula and the New Siberian Islands, renamed in 1935 for the Laptev brothers.
Larsen Channel
Larsen Channel is a 1-3 mile wide strait between d'Urville and Joinville Islands off the Antarctic Peninsula, discovered in December 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and named for Captain C.A. Larsen of the ship Antarctic.
Larsen Inlet
Larsen Inlet, also Ensenada Larsen, is an ice-filled inlet between Sobral Peninsula and Cape Longing on the Nordenskjöld Coast, Graham Land, Antarctica; charted by C.A. Larsen in 1893, renamed after a 1947 FIDS survey, its ice shelf collapsed in 1989.
Lätäseno-Hietajoki Mires
Lätäseno-Hietajoki Mires (Lätäsenon-Hietajoen suot), Ramsar Site 1520 in Enontekiö, Lapland: a 43,367 ha palsa mire and river complex protected since 1988, part of Käsivarren erämaa Natura 2000 area.
Lau Basin
The Lau Basin is a back-arc basin in the southwest Pacific Ocean behind the Tonga Arc, where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the Australian Plate.
Laubeuf Fjord
Laubeuf Fjord (Fiord Laubeuf, Seno Laubeuf) is a 25-mile-long Antarctic sound between Adelaide Island and the Loubet Coast, charted by Charcot in 1909 and named for engineer Maxime Laubeuf.
Leech Lake
Leech Lake (Gaa-zagaskwaajimekaag) is Minnesota's third-largest entirely in-state lake, about 111,527 acres in Cass County with 316 miles of shoreline, formed partly by the 1882 Federal Dam, within the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation, famed for walleye and muskie fishing.
Leeuwin Current
The Leeuwin Current is the poleward-flowing eastern boundary current of the south Indian Ocean, carrying warm low-salinity water south along Western Australia to the Great Australian Bight, driven by the Indonesian Throughflow pressure gradient, peaking in austral winter at about 1.8 Sv.
Lehigh River
The Lehigh River is a 100-mile Pennsylvania tributary of the Delaware River draining 1,364 square miles, dammed by the 1961 Francis E. Walter Dam for flood control, famed for Lehigh Gorge whitewater, its coal-canal heritage, and use as a drinking-water source.
Lehrke Inlet
Lehrke Inlet, also Lehrke Bay, is an ice-filled inlet on the east coast of Palmer Land, Antarctica, between Cape Boggs and Cape Sharbonneau, discovered by the USAS in 1940 and named for Lester Lehrke of the Bear.
Leitha
Leitha (Hungarian Lajta, historically Sar): Austrian-Hungarian river, right Danube tributary formed by Schwarza-Pitten confluence at Lanzenkirchen, about 180 km long, historic Austria-Hungary border giving Cisleithania and Transleithania their names.
Lemaire Channel
The Lemaire Channel, nicknamed Kodak Gap, is an 11 km narrow passage in Antarctica between Booth Island and the Kiev Peninsula, known for mirror-calm, scenic waters.
Lena (landform)
The Lena is a large river in eastern Siberia that flows north from near Lake Baikal to the Laptev Sea, delivering about 15 percent of the freshwater entering the Arctic Ocean.
Lena Delta
Lena Delta (Lena River Delta), Siberian Arctic river delta at the Laptev Sea; largest Arctic delta, ~30,000 km², 6,500 km of channels, continuous permafrost, Lena Delta Reserve.
Lerma - Chapala
The Lerma-Chapala basin is a river basin and freshwater ecoregion in central Mexico, where the Río Lerma flows more than 700 km into Lago de Chapala.
Lessepsian migration
Lessepsian migration, or Erythrean invasion, is the one-way movement of Red Sea marine species into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal (opened 1869), named after Ferdinand de Lesseps; over 400 multicellular species and 100 fish species have crossed.
Lesser Slave
Lesser Slave denotes Lesser Slave Lake and the Lesser Slave River in Alberta, Canada: a 1,160 km² boreal lake, Alberta's largest managed fishery, draining east into the Athabasca River near the town of Slave Lake.
Leukimma Pr.
Leukimma Pr. (Λευκίμμη, Leucimme) is an ancient promontory of Corcyra (Corfu), the modern Akra Lefkimis on the island's southeast coast; named by Thucydides, Strabo, Ptolemy, and Pliny, and site of the 435 BC Corcyraean naval victory trophy over Corinth.
Leyte Gulf
Leyte Gulf: gulf in Eastern Visayas, Philippines, between Leyte and Samar islands, 2,724 sq km; site of the October 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle in history, and of Typhoon Haiyan's 2013 storm surge.
Liao He
Liao He (辽河, Liao River), river and FEOW freshwater ecoregion 637 in Liaoning and Jilin, China; temperate floodplain system draining to Korea Bay and Bohai Sea, 3 endemic fishes, large delta wetlands, Ramsar site since 2004.
Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park
Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park, a 1,082 ha BC park on the Alaska Highway at km 765, protects Canada's second largest hot spring (Alpha pool 42–52°C, 81 L/s), warm swamps, and the endemic Hotwater Physa snail.
Liddon Gulf
Liddon Gulf, also Kangikhokyoak, is a 64-mile inlet on the southwest coast of Melville Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, named in 1820 by Parry for Lieutenant Matthew Liddon of HMS Griper.
Ligurian Sea
Ligurian Sea (Mar Ligure), IHO sea area in the northwestern Mediterranean between Ventimiglia, La Spezia, and Corsica; deep basin with cyclonic gyre, Liguro-Provençal Current, 454 fish species, and warming of about 0.7 °C since 1948.
Lillebælt
Lillebælt (Little Belt), Danish strait between Jutland/Als and Funen/Ærø, ~130 km long, deepest ~80 m at Marens Hul; Ramsar site 154, Natura 2000 no. 112, Naturpark Lillebælt, dense porpoise population, marine naturnationalpark from 2026.
Liman (landform)
Liman: a coastal lagoon formed where a sand bar partially bars a drowned river mouth, common on the Black Sea coast; from Turkish liman 'port', from Greek limēn 'bay'.
Limnic eruption
Limnic eruption: the sudden release of dissolved CO2 from a stratified lake, known from Lake Monoun (1984, 37 deaths) and Lake Nyos (1986, ~1,700 deaths) in Cameroon; mitigated by degassing pipes.