2,436 articles
Walker circulation
Walker circulation: the zonal atmospheric overturning loop over the equatorial Pacific, named for Gilbert Walker. Rising air over the western warm pool, sinking over the eastern Pacific; strengthened since 1979 but projected to weaken under greenhouse warming.
Walking catfish
Walking catfish (Clarias batrachus), also called magur, is a Southeast Asian air-breathing catfish that moves overland using pectoral fins. Established in Florida since the 1960s, listed as injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act since 1970.
Wallaman Falls
Wallaman Falls is a 268-meter single-drop waterfall on Stony Creek in Girringun National Park, 51 km south-west of Ingham, Queensland, and Australia's tallest single-drop waterfall.
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay (Whale Bay) is Namibia's principal deep-water port city on the Atlantic coast. British-annexed 1878, transferred to Namibia 1994; gateway via the Trans-Kalahari Corridor to landlocked SADC trade.
Walvis Ridge
Walvis Ridge: ~3,300 km aseismic seamount chain in the Southeast Atlantic from the Namibian margin to Tristan da Cunha and Gough, the Tristan-Gough hotspot track beginning with the ~132 Ma Paraná-Etendeka flood basalts, paired with the Rio Grande Rise.
Washita
Washita River, a 580-plus-mile Red River tributary rising in the Texas Panhandle and entering Lake Texoma, Oklahoma; site of the 1868 Battle of the Washita, the 1934 Hammon Flood, and 1,140 USDA flood control dams.
Water horse
Water horse (each-uisge; Irish each uisce, aughisky; Manx cabbyl-ushtey) is a Celtic folklore water spirit in horse form that drowns riders and seduced victims, closely related to and often confused with the Scottish kelpie of river tradition.
Waterfall
Waterfall: a very steep, nearly vertical fall in a river course, synonymous with knickpoint. Forms on resistant caprock over softer rock, retreats by undercutting or plunge-pool drilling, and acts as a fish-migration barrier.
Waterfalls by flow rate
Waterfalls by flow rate ranks the world's waterfalls by mean annual discharge, led by Inga Falls on the Congo River at 25,768 m³/s, with Boyoma Falls first among true waterfalls.
Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park: 22 named falls on Kitchen Creek's Glen Leigh and Ganoga Glen branches, uniting at Waters Meet; tallest is 94-foot Ganoga Falls, seen via the 7.2-mile Falls Trail loop.
Waterfalls of Australia
The waterfalls of Australia are the named drops of its rivers and streams, numbering 2,885, with Wallaman Falls in Queensland the tallest single drop at 268 meters.
Waterfalls of Glacier National Park
The waterfalls of Glacier National Park in Montana number about 46 named falls, formed by Pleistocene glaciation, peaking in June and early July and frozen by November.
Waterfalls of Mexico
The Waterfalls of Mexico include Basaseachic in Chihuahua, often cited as the country's tallest, and Hierve el Agua in Oaxaca, a petrified waterfall of calcium carbonate.
Waterfalls of Oregon
Oregon is among the most waterfall-dense US states, with 1,633 inventoried falls, more than 90 clustered in the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls the most visited.
Waterfalls of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
Waterfalls of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, including Raymondskill Falls, Dingmans Falls, and Silver Thread Falls, are glacial-meltwater knickpoint cascades on Pocono Plateau streams in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with access rules set by the park compendium.
Waterfalls of Washington (state)
Waterfalls of Washington (state): over 2,900 falls, more than any other US state, led by Colonial Creek Falls (about 2,568 ft) and Palouse Falls, the official state waterfall since 2014, carved by Ice Age floods.
Waterfalls of Yellowstone National Park
Waterfalls of Yellowstone National Park: over 40 named falls, led by the 308-foot Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, formed by rock-hardness contrasts, hydrothermal weakening, and glacial floods.
Waterfalls of Yosemite National Park
Waterfalls of Yosemite National Park: seasonal Sierra Nevada cascades including Yosemite Falls (2,425 ft, tallest measured in North America), Bridalveil Fall, and Horsetail Fall, fed by snowmelt peaking in May or June.
Waterhole
Waterhole: a natural depression or enlarged river-channel segment holding standing water in non-perennial watercourses, especially in arid Australia (also gnamma holes, billabongs); vital drought refugia and Aboriginal cultural sites.
Watershed management
Watershed management organizes land, water, and resource use within a drainage basin, evolving into integrated, participatory, adaptive management using remote sensing, GIS, and modeling; effects include runoff cuts up to 25% and recharge gains of 40–70%.
Weber Basin
Weber Basin (Weber Deep, Banda Trench) is a 7.2-km-deep arcuate forearc basin in the eastern Banda Sea, Indonesia, Earth's deepest ocean floor outside trenches, formed by Banda detachment extension and dynamic topography.
Weddell Gyre
The Weddell Gyre is the largest Southern Ocean subpolar gyre, a clockwise circulation spanning about 5.6 million km2 from the Antarctic Peninsula to 30 degrees E, transporting roughly 51-56 Sv and feeding Antarctic Bottom Water formation.
Weddell Polynya
The Weddell Polynya was a huge open-water hole in the winter sea ice of the Weddell Sea near Maud Rise, present 1974–1976, averaging 250,000 km², maintained by deep-ocean convection; smaller Maud Rise polynyas recurred in 2016–2017.
Weddell Sea (landform)
Weddell Sea, large ice-covered embayment of the Southern Ocean named for James Weddell; site of the Weddell Gyre, Antarctic Bottom Water formation, Maud Rise polynyas, and a proposed 2.2 million km2 CCAMLR marine protected area.
Weddell Sea Bottom Water
Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW) is the cold, dense deepest water mass of the Weddell Gyre, formed by mixing Ice Shelf Water plumes with Warm Deep Water; a precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water, produced at roughly 3–8 × 10^6 m³/s and exported via the western boundary current.
Wei
Wei (渭河, Wei Shui), largest tributary of the Yellow River, 818 km, rising in Weiyuan County, Gansu, crossing the Guanzhong Plain past Xi'an to join the Yellow River at Tongguan; heavily irrigated since 246 BC, water-scarce, with declining runoff and falling sediment load.
Wells
Wells, or Lake Wells, is a horseshoe-shaped salt lake in Western Australia's Northern Goldfields, named after explorer Lawrence Wells; its hypersaline brine hosts a 29 Mt sulphate-of-potash resource and an EPA-approved but undeveloped potash project.
West Florida Gulf
West Florida Gulf, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 154, a temperate coastal rivers ecoregion in southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle defined by the Perdido, Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow, and Choctawhatchee drainages, with endemic darters and long-leaf pine forests.
West Lake
West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú) is a freshwater lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, whose pagodas and causeways made it one of the most depicted sites in Chinese art.
West Philippine Sea
West Philippine Sea (Kanlurang Dagat ng Pilipinas): Philippine government name, set by Administrative Order No. 29 of 5 September 2012, for western maritime areas including the Luzon Sea, Kalayaan Island Group, and Bajo de Masinloc, upheld by the 2016 arbitral award.