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A geographical feature category is any type of natural feature on the earth. These can be very general (e.g. mountain) or more specific (e.g. shield volcano).
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156 Geographical feature category topics matching:
Filter this Collection| x name | x image | x Features | x Subcategories | x Subcategory of | x article |
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| x Cave |
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Ice cave |
A cave or cavern is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes...
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| Lava tube | |||||
| Glacier cave | |||||
| Anchihaline cave | |||||
| Sea cave | |||||
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| x Lava tube |
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Cave |
Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the...
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| x Ice cave |
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Cave |
The term ice cave refers to any type of natural cave (most commonly lava tubes or limestone caves) that contains significant amounts of perennial (year-round) ice. At least a portion of the cave must have a temperature below 0 °C (32 °F) all year...
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| x Glacier cave |
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Cave |
A glacier cave is a cave formed within the ice of a glacier. Glacier caves are often called ice caves, but this term is properly used to describe bedrock caves that contain year-round ice.
Most glacier caves are started by water running through or...
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| x Anchihaline cave | Cave |
Anchihaline caves are caves, usually coastal, containing a mixture of freshwater and saline water (usually seawater). They occur in many parts of the world, and often contain highly specialised and endemic faunas.
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| x Sea cave |
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Cave |
A sea cave, also known as a littoral cave, is a type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea. The primary process involved is erosion. Sea caves are found throughout the world, actively forming along present coastlines and as relict...
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| x Pit Cave | Cave |
A pit cave (or vertical cave), often simply called a "pit", is a type of natural cave which is a vertical shaft rather than a horizontal cave passage. Pit caves typically form in limestone as a result of long-term erosion by water. Pit caves can be...
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| x Agriculture |
Agriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants (i.e. crops) creating food surpluses...
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| x Archipelago |
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An archipelago (pronounced /ɑrkɨˈpɛləɡoʊ/) is a chain or cluster of islands that are formed tectonically. The word archipelago is directly derived from the Greek arkhon (arkhi-) ("main" - and so "leader" in "monarchy" for example) and pelagos ("sea"...
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| x Caldera |
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A caldera is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption such as the ones at Yellowstone National Park in the US and Glen Coe in Scotland. They are sometimes confused with volcanic craters....
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| x Dune |
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In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by aeolian processes. Dunes are subject to different forms and sizes based on their interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dune are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the...
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| x Glacier |
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A glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years. The word glacier comes from French via the Vulgar Latin glacia, and ultimately...
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| x Island |
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Isla Martín García |
An island (pronounced /ˈaɪlənd/) or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in...
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| Porquerolles | |||||
| Mercer Island | |||||
| x Lake |
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A lake (from Latin lacus) is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is, it is not global) and moves slowly if it...
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| x Loch |
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A loch (pronounced /ˈlɒx/, or /ˈlɒk/ due to the inability of most English-speakers outside of Scotland to use the voiceless velar fricative; usually spelled Lough as a name element outside Scotland) is a body of water which is either:
Sea-inlet...
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| x Oasis |
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In geography, an oasis (plural: oases) or cienega (southwestern United States) is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area...
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| x Ocean |
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An ocean (from Greek Ωκεανός, Okeanos (Oceanus)) is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361,000,000 square kilometres (139,000,000 sq mi)) is covered...
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| x Peninsula |
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A peninsula is a piece of land that is nearly surrounded by water but connected to mainland via an isthmus. Word origin: Latin paenīnsula : paene, almost + īnsula, island.
A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, or...
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| x Plain |
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In geography, a plain is a land with relatively high relief, as well as flat. Prairies and steppes are types of plains, and the archetype for a plain is often thought of as a grassland, but plains in their natural state may also be covered in...
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| x River |
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Cuarto River | Entrenched river |
A river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also...
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| Braided river | |||||
| x Sea |
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A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, the term refers to a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean. It is also...
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| x Tor |
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A tor is a rock outcrop formed by weathering, usually found on or near the summit of a hill. In the South West of England, where the term originated, it is also a word used for the hills themselves – particularly the high points of Dartmoor in Devon...
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| x Valley |
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In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.
The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys....
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| x Volcano |
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A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or crust, which allows hot magma, ash and gases to escape from below the surface. The word volcano is derived from the name of Vulcano island off Sicily which in turn, was named after Vulcan...
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| x Mountain |
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A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area usually in the form of a peak. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill. The adjective montane is used to describe mountainous areas and things associated...
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| x Beach |
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A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, or cobblestones. The particles of which the beach is composed...
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| x Fjord |
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Geologically, a fjord (pronounced /fjɔrd/ ( listen) or pronounced /fiːɔrd/) is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.
Fjords are formed when a glacier cuts a v-shaped valley by abrasion of the...
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| x Drumlin |
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A drumlin (derived from the Gaelic word druim (“rounded hill,” or “mound”) first recorded use in 1833) is an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Its long axis is parallel with the movement of the ice, with the blunter end facing...
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| x Atoll |
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An atoll (pronounced /ˈætɒl/ or English pronunciation: /æˈtɒl/) is an island of coral that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.
The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi (an Indo-Aryan language spoken on the Maldive Islands) word atholhu (Dhivehi...
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| x Steppe |
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A steppe in physical geography refers to a biome region (that is, a climatically and geographically defined area) characterised by grassland plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes). The prairie (especially the shortgrass prairie...
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| x Strait |
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Dardanelles |
A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a...
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| Deception Pass | |||||
| Kattegat | |||||
| Mozambique Channel | |||||
| Strait of Gibraltar | |||||
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| x Prairie |
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Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type....
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| x Waterfall |
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A waterfall is a place where flowing water rapidly drops in elevation as it flows over a steep region or a cliff.
Typically, a river flows over a large step in the rocks that may have been formed by a fault line. As it increases its velocity at the...
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| x Floodplain |
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A floodplain, or flood plain, is flat or nearly flat land adjacent to a stream or river that experiences occasional or periodic flooding. It includes the floodway, which consists of the stream channel and adjacent areas that carry flood flows, and...
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| x Stream |
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A stream is a flowing body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, kill, lick, rill, river syke, bayou,...
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| x Estuary |
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An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries are thus subject to both marine influences, such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline...
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| x Canyon |
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A canyon, or gorge, is a deep valley between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level. The cliffs form because harder rock strata that are resistant to erosion...
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| x Natural arch |
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A natural arch or natural bridge is a natural formation (or landform) where a rock arch forms, with a natural passageway through underneath. Most natural arches form as a narrow ridge, walled by cliffs, become narrower from erosion, with a softer...
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| x Swamp |
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A swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that...
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| x Wetland |
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Everglades |
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The...
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| Burns Bog | |||||
| Birds Mill Swamp | |||||
| x Fen |
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A fen is a type of wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater. Fens are characterized by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline. Fens are different from bogs, which are acidic, fed primarily by rainwater (ombrotrophic) and often...
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| x Isthmus |
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An isthmus (English pronunciation: /ˈɪsθməs/ or /ˈɪsməs/; plural: isthmuses, isthmi, from Ancient Greek: ἰσθμός, isthmos, neck) is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas. Of note, the Isthmus of Panama connects the continents of...
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| x Oceanic trench |
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The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor.
Trenches define one of the most important natural boundaries on the Earth’s solid surface; that...
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| x Bog |
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A bog or mire is a wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—usually mosses, but also lichens in Arctic climates.
Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic, either from acidic ground water, or where...
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| x Stratovolcano |
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A stratovolcano, sometimes called a composite volcano, is a tall, conical volcano with many layers (strata) of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. Stratovolcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. The lava...
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| x River delta |
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Paraná Delta |
A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the...
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| x Seamount |
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A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a...
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| x Marsh |
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In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants. Woody plants will be low...
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| x Pond |
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A pond is an inland body of standing water, either natural or man-made, that is usually smaller than a lake. A wide variety of man-made bodies of water are classified as ponds, including water gardens designed for aesthetic ornamentation, fish ponds...
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| x Cliff |
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In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas,...
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| x Escarpment |
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In geomorphology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves a sharp, steep elevation differential, characterized by a cliff or steep slope. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp ...
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| x Grassland |
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Grasslands (also called greenswards) are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae) and other herbaceous (non-woody) plants (forbs). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) families can also be found. Grasslands occur...
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| x Temperate coniferous forests |
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The temperate coniferous forest includes areas such as the Valdivian temperate rain forests of southwestern South America, the rain forests of New Zealand and Tasmania, northwest Europe (small pockets in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland and a...
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| x Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests |
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Temperate broadleaf and mixed forests are a temperate and humid biome. The typical structure of these forests include four layers. The upper most layer is the canopy which is composed of tall mature trees. Below the canopy is the three-layered,...
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| x Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests |
Tropical and subtropical coniferous forests are a forest biome. They are located in regions of semi-humid climate at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Most tropical and subtropical coniferous forest ecoregions are found in the Nearctic and...
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| x Pasture |
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Pasture is land with low-growing vegetation cover used for grazing of livestock as part of a farm, or in ranching or other unenclosed pastoral systems. Prior to the advent of factory farming, pasture was the primary source of food for grazing...
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| x Ditch |
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A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel water.
In Anglo-Saxon, the word dic already existed and was pronounced with a hard c in northern England and as ditch in the south. The origins of the word lie in...
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| x Islet |
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An islet is a small island.
As suggested by its origin as islette, an Old French diminutive of "isle", use of the term implies small size, but little attention is given to drawing an upper limit on its applicability.
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| x Stack |
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A stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast. Stacks are formed when part of a headland is eroded by hydraulic action, which is the force of the sea or water crashing...
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| x Cove |
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A cove is a circular or oval coastal inlet with a narrow entrance. Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered bay.
Coves are the results of waves attacking the weakness of rocks, infiltrating them to result in inlets. These further...
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