2,436 articles
Virgin River
Virgin River: about 163-mile Colorado River tributary rising above Zion National Park, Utah, flowing through Arizona and Nevada into Lake Mead; home to endangered woundfin and Virgin River chub.
Virihaure
Virihaure (Lule Sami Vijrehávrre, Virijaure), a large unregulated mountain lake in Padjelanta National Park, Lapland, Sweden; 108 to 112 km², 138 m deep, source lake of the Stora Luleälven draining to Vastenjaure.
Visayan Sea
Visayan Sea: shallow inland sea (5,184 km², max depth 150 m) in the central Philippines bounded by Masbate, Cebu, Negros, and Panay; major sardine, herring, and mackerel fishing ground with a November 15 to February 15 closed season under FAO 167.
Viscount Melville Sound
Viscount Melville Sound, Arctic Ocean arm in Canada's Northwest Passage, 402 km long between Victoria, Prince of Wales, Melville, and Bathurst islands; part of Parry Channel, explored by McClure 1850–53.
Vistula
The Vistula (Wisła) is Poland's longest river, 1,022 km from Barania Góra to the Baltic, with a 194,000 km² basin covering 54% of Poland. Historic grain-trade artery to Gdańsk, engineered by the Przekop cross-cut and the 2022 Vistula Spit ditch, now hit by salinity, sand extraction, and 2025 record-low levels.
Vitim
Vitim (Витим) is a 1,837 km right tributary of the Lena in eastern Siberia, draining 225,000 km², with rain-fed flow, Bodaybo gold mining, and Pleistocene glacial Lake Vitim megafloods.
Vltava
Vltava (Moldau), the longest river in the Czech Republic at 430.2 km, flows from Šumava to join the Elbe at Mělník; 28,090 km² basin, Vltava Cascade dams, historic floods of 1784 and 2002, and Smetana's 1874 symphonic poem.
Volga - Ural
Volga - Ural, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 410 (also Volga-Ural ecoregion), spans the Volga, Ural, and Emba drainages in Russia and Kazakhstan, draining to the Caspian Sea; temperate floodplain rivers with key sturgeon spawning grounds.
Volga (Волга)
Volga (Волга), Europe's largest river: 3,660 km from the Valdai Hills to the Caspian Sea, basin 1,380,000 km² covering a third of European Russia, regulated by eight reservoirs, with major pollution and 2025 low-water problems.
Volga Delta
Volga Delta: Europe's largest river delta, where the Volga (80% of Caspian freshwater inflow) splits into over 1000 waterways in Astrakhan Oblast; a low-gradient ramp delta shaped by rapid Caspian sea-level swings.
Volga Delta - Northern Caspian Drainages
Volga Delta - Northern Caspian Drainages (FEOW ecoregion 453) is a Palearctic large-lake freshwater ecoregion covering the Volga Delta, the shallow northern Caspian Sea, and the eastern Precaspian Lowland, defined by high productivity, sturgeon and shad fauna, and Caspian sea-level change.
Volta
Volta: West African river system, 1,850 km long, draining a 400,000 km2 basin shared by Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, and Togo; dammed at Akosombo in 1963-1964, creating Lake Volta and a major fishery.
Võrtsjärv
Võrtsjärv, Estonia's largest entirely domestic lake (270 km², mean depth 2.8 m), a shallow turbid eutrophic, cyanobacteria-dominated lake draining via the Emajõgi into Lake Peipsi, with ice cover about 135 days a year.
Vossia cuspidata
Vossia cuspidata, hippo grass, sole species of genus Vossia, a C4 perennial emergent aquatic Poaceae grass native to Africa and Assam to Indo-China, floating spongy culms to 7 m, IUCN Least Concern, invasive in Egypt's Nile.
Voyage of the James Caird
Voyage of the James Caird: 1916 open-boat journey by Ernest Shackleton and five companions about 800 miles from Elephant Island to South Georgia, rescuing the Endurance expedition; boat now at Dulwich College.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
The voyages of Christopher Columbus: four transatlantic expeditions, 1492–1504, sponsored by Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, reaching the Caribbean while seeking Asia; they began permanent contact between Europe and the Americas.
Voyages of James Cook
The voyages of James Cook were three British expeditions to the Pacific Ocean between 1768 and 1780, charting New Zealand, eastern Australia, and Antarctic waters.
Voyageurs
Voyageurs (voyageurs, engagés) were contracted French-Canadian canoe men of the North American fur trade, paddling 14-16 hours daily over 5,000 km routes for the North West Company from the 1690s to the 1850s.
Vritra (वृत्र)
Vritra (वृत्र), also Ahi, is the serpent or dragon of the Rig Veda who blocks the world's waters and is slain by Indra with the vajra made by Tvaṣṭar, chiefly in hymn 1.32; cognate with Avestan Vərəθraγna and read variously as cloud, drought, or winter demon.
Vyatka
Vyatka (Вятка; Udmurt Vatka, Tatar Nokrat) is a 1,314 km river in Russia, the largest right tributary of the Kama, flowing through Udmurtia, Kirov Oblast, and Tatarstan into the Kama 17 km below Mamadysh.
Vychegda
The Vychegda (Вычегда, Komi: Ezhva) is a river in northern European Russia and the largest right tributary of the Northern Dvina, flowing 1,130 km west.
Vygozero
Vygozero (Выгозеро, Uikujärvi) is a large reservoir in Karelia, Russia, formed in 1933 from a natural lake by the White Sea–Baltic Canal and merged with the Onda reservoir in 1957; about 1,140–1,270 km², over 500 islands, part of the Vyg–White Sea basin.
Wabash
The Wabash River is a 764 km tributary of the Ohio River rising in western Ohio and crossing Indiana, whose lower two-thirds is the longest undammed river reach east of the Mississippi.
Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea (Waddenzee, Wattenmeer) is the world's largest unbroken intertidal sand and mud flat system, over 500 km along the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark coasts; a 1,143,403 ha UNESCO World Heritage site (2009, extended 2014) vital for 10-12 million migratory birds yearly.
Wadi junction
Wadi junction (WADJ): a gazetteer-designated hydrographic feature, a place where two or more wadies, the dry seasonal valleys of North Africa and the Middle East, join; distinct from the Wadi Junction railway station in Karnataka, India.
Wadi mouth
Wadi mouth: the lower terminus of a wadi where it widens into a floodplain, depression, or waterbody (code WADM). Ephemeral flash-flood sedimentation, fan deltas, estuarine facies, and flood hazards at arid coasts.
Wager Bay
Wager Bay, Nunavut, a bay on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay, Canada; shores of Ukkusiksalik National Park; site of a 1925 Hudson's Bay Company post and 1742 Middleton exploration.
Wainganga
Wainganga River, also Vriddha-Ganga, a major Godavari tributary rising in Seoni district, Madhya Pradesh, flowing about 580-642 km through Maharashtra to join the Wardha and form the Pranahita.
Waitaki River
Waitaki River: South Island New Zealand river, about 68 miles long, catchment second only to the Clutha; heavily developed for hydroelectricity from the 1928 Waitaki Dam onward, birthplace of NZ social security.
Walden Pond
Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts: glacial kettle lake, deepest in Massachusetts, no inlet or outlet, 24.88 ha. Henry David Thoreau lived there 1845-1847 and wrote Walden; now a DCR state reservation and National Historical and Literary Landmark.