| geographic feature | |
| bedding-plane cave | A cavity developed along a bedding-plane and elongate in cross-section as a result. |
| anthropogenic feature | |
| mine tailing | |
| administrative region | |
| first-order administrative region | A primary administrative division of a country, such as a state in the United States. |
| second-order administrative region | A subdivision of a first-order administrative division. |
| third-order administrative region | A subdivision of a second-order administrative division. |
| fourth-order administrative region | A subdivision of a third-order administrative division. |
| national geopolitical entity | A political association with effective dominion over a geographic area. |
| transport feature | A man-made feature constructed for the purpose of enabling the movement of humans, their animals or their vehicles. |
| garden | An enclosure for displaying selected plant or animal life. |
| hydrographic feature | A geographical feature associated with water. |
| cave system | A collection of caves interconnected by enterable passages or linked hydrologically or a cave with an extensive complex of chambers and passages. |
| canal | Artificial watercourse with no flow or a controlled flow used for navigation, drainage or irrigation. |
| ocean | Continuous saline-water bodies that surround the continents and fill the Earth's great depressions. |
| sea | A large expanse of saline water usually connected with an ocean. |
| saline hydrographic feature | A geographical feature associated with water with a halinity above 30 ppt (roughly 35 g/L). |
| dry river | A river that has either permanently or temporally lost its water. |
| saline lake | A lake whose water contains a considerable concentration of dissolved salts. |
| lake | A body of water or other liquid of considerable size contained on a body of land. |
| freshwater lake | A lake of whose water contains low concentrations of salts. |
| river | Natural freshwater surface streams of considerable volume and a permanent or seasonal flow, moving in a definite channel toward a sea, lake, or another river; any large streams, or ones larger than brooks or creeks, such as the trunk stream and larger branches of a drainage system. |
| stream | Linear body of water flowing on the Earth's surface. |
| intermittent stream | A stream whose flow is not continuous. |
| reservoir | An artificial body of water, often contained by a dam, constructed for the purpose of water storage. |
| well | A cylindrical hole, pit, or tunnel drilled or dug down to a depth from which water, oil, or gas can be pumped or brought to the surface. |
| spring | A point where groundwater or steam flows out of the ground, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface or where there is a fissure. |
| sand pit | A quarry from which sand is extracted. |
| watercourse | A flowing body of water. |
| dead cave | A cave without streams or drips of water. |
| wadi | A valley or ravine, bounded by relatively steep banks, which in the rainy season becomes a watercourse. |
| bay | An area of water bordered by land on three sides. |
| pond | A body of water, usually of smaller size than a lake. |
| rapids | An area of broken, fast flowing water in a stream, where the slope of the bed increases (but without a prominent break of slope which might result in a waterfall), or where a gently dipping bar of harder rock outcrops. |
| marsh | A wetland, featuring grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. |
| irrigation canal | Artificial watercourse with no flow or a controlled flow used irrigation. |
| ditch | A small artificial watercourse dug for draining or irrigating the land. |
| lagoon | A sheet of saline water separated from the open sea by sand or shingle banks. The sheet of water between an offshore reef, especially of coral and mainland. The sheet of water within a ring or horseshoe shaped atoll. |
| fjord | A long and narrow sea inlet with high steeply sloped walled sides. A fjord is a landform created during a period of glaciation. |
| waterfall | A sudden descent of water over a step or ledge in the bed of a river. |
| tidal creek | A tidal water channel. Creeks may often dry to a muddy channel with little or no flow at low tide, but often with significant depth of water at high tide. |
| drainage canal | Artificial watercourse with no flow or a controlled flow used drainage. |
| wetland | An area that is inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. |
| peatland | A wetland type that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material. |
| estuary | 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. |
| hedge | A dense growth of shrubbery planted as a fence or boundary. |
| canopy | |
| navigation canal | Artificial watercourse with no flow or a controlled flow used navigation. |
| volcanic hydrographic feature | |
| geyser | A hot spring that erupts periodically, ejecting a column of hot water and steam into the air. |
| hot spring | A spring that is produced by the emergence of geothermally-heated groundwater from the Earth's crust. |
| crater lake | A lake contained within a volcanic crater. |
| freshwater marsh | A marsh associated with water that contains low concentrations of salts. |
| saline marsh | A marsh whose water contains a considerable quantity of dissolved salts. |
| saline evaporation pond | A shallow man-made pond designed to produce salt from sea water. The seawater is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested. |
| fishpond | A pond or lake used for the artificial culture of fish. |
| mangrove swamp | An swamp formed of trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. |
| underground lake | A lake which is formed under the surface of the Earth. Such a lake may be associated with caves and aquifers and springs. |
| underground river | A river that is under the surface of the Earth. |
| underground stream | A stream that is under the surface of the Earth. |
| underground water body | A geographical feature associated with water that is under the surface of the earth. |
| populated place | Place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population. |
| water body | |
| road | An open way for the passage of vehicles, persons, or animals on land. |
| railway | A permanent way having one or more rails which provides a track for cars. |
| man-made tunnel | A tunnel constructed by human means. |
| cave | Naturally formed, subterranean open area or chamber. |
| tunnel | An underground or underwater passage. |
| distributary | A stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a common feature of river deltas. |
| constructed feature | A feature that has been constructed by deliberate human effort. |
| fault cave | A cave developed along a fault or fault zone, either by movement of the fault or by preferential solution along it. |
| aquaduct | Structure designed to transport water from a remote source, usually by gravity. |
| building | A permanent walled and roofed construction. |
| dam | A barrier constructed across a watercourse to control the flow or raise the level of water. |
| bridge | A built structure erected over a depression or obstacle to carry traffic or some facility such as a pipeline. |
| mine | An excavation in the Earth for the purpose of extracting earth materials. |
| agricultural feature | |
| farm | A tract of crop or grazing land, as well as the group of buildings with and often surrounding a farmhouse, including barns, sheds, and other outbuildings, used for agricultural production. |
| flume | An open artificial water channel, that leads water from a diversion dam or weir completely aside a natural flow, often an elevated box structure (typically wood) that follows the natural contours of the land. |
| mountain range | A series of connected and aligned mountains or mountain ridges. |
| mountain | A landform that extends above the surrounding terrain in a limited area. A mountain is generally steeper than a hill, but there is no universally accepted standard definition for the height of a mountain or a hill although a mountain usually has an identifiable summit and a local relief of more than 300m. |
| hill range | A group of hills bordered by lowlands. |
| hill | A rounded elevation of limited extent rising above the surrounding land with local relief of less than 300m. |
| mountain pass | A lower point that allows easier access through a mountain range. A pass has the general form of a saddle between two mountains. |
| alpine glacier | A glacier found in mountain terrain. |
| plain | A region of general uniform slope, comparatively level, and of considerable extent. |
| cliff | A high, steep, or overhanging face of rock. |
| sea cliff | A cliff that is a margin of a sea or ocean. |
| inland cliff | |
| coastal plain | An area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a seacoast and separated from the interior by other features. |
| beach | A landform consisting of loose rock particles such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, cobble, or even shell fragments along the shoreline of a body of water. |
| sea beach | A landform consisting of loose rock particles such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, cobble, or even shell fragments along the shoreline of a sea. |
| lacustrine beach | A landform consisting of loose rock particles such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, cobble, or even shell fragments along the shoreline of a lake. |
| volcanic feature | A feature associated with a volcano, an opening, or rupture, in the Earth's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash and gases to escape from deep below the surface. |
| lava field | A feature formed by cooled lava, the molten rock that is expelled by a volcano during an eruption. |
| caldera | A feature formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption. |
| desert | A region rendered barren or partially barren by environmental extremes, especially by low rainfall. |
| island | Area of dry or relatively dry land surrounded by water or low wetland. |
| artificial island | An island constructed by human effort. |
| valley | A depression caused by erosion by water or ice. Low-lying land bordered by higher ground; especially elongate, relatively large gently sloping depressions of the Earth's surface, commonly situated between two mountains or between ranges of hills or mountains, and often containing a stream with an outlet. |
| delta | A tract of alluvium formed at the mouth of a river where the deposition ofsome of its load exceeds its rate of removal, crossed by the divergent channels (distributaries) of the river. |
| cave entrance | |
| mangrove island | An island formed of trees and shrubs that grow in saline coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. |
| undersea feature | |
| lake surface | |
| grassland | An area in which grasses (Graminae) are a significant component of the vegetation. |
| heath | An upland moor or sandy area dominated by low shrubby vegetation including heather. |
| meadow | A habitat of rolling or flat terrain where grasses predominate. Typically, what is called a meadow has more biodiversity than a grassland as the former contains not only grasses but a significant variety of annual, biennial and perennial plants. |
| woodland | Land having a cover of trees, shrubs, or both. |
| lava tunnel | A tunnel formed by the flow of molten lava, which has subsequently drained out. |
| forest | An area with a high density of trees. A small forest may be called a wood. |
| tundra | Treeless, level, or gently rolling plains characteristic of arctic or subarctic regions, having a permanently frozen subsoil, and usually supporting low growing vegetation such as lichens, mosses, and stunted shrubs. |
| cultivated habitat | A geographical feature modified by humans by the preparation of the land, usually for the purposes of growing crops. |
| field | An area of land, usually relatively small, enclosed or otherwise and used for agricultural purposes. |
| orchard | An intentional planting of trees or shrubs maintained for food, typically fruit, production. |
| vineyard | A place where grapes are grown for making wine, raisins or table grapes. |
| plantation | An intentional planting of a crop, on a large scale, usually for uses other than cereal production or pasture. The term is currently most often used for plantings of trees and shrubs. The term tends also to be used for plantings maintained on economic bases other than that of subsistence farming. |
| coconut plantation | |
| planted forest | A forest that has been intentionally established by human intervention. |
| oil palm plantation | |
| artificial channel | |
| track | A small road, generally not paved. |
| political entity | A geographical region whose affairs and population are administered by an authority. |
| supranational geopolitical entity | A political entitity established by more than one state and with at least some influence over the affairs of its member states. |
| mineral spring | A spring whose water contains a significant amount of dissolved minerals, that derive from the rocks through which the water flows. |
| sulfur spring | A spring whose water contains a significant amount of dissolved derivatives of sulfur. |
| badland | An arid terrain with clay-rich soil that has been extensively eroded by wind and water. |
| dry valley | A valley that no longer has a surface flow of water. Typically found in either Karst (limestone) or chalk terrain. |
| stream valley | A valley that contains, and has been formed by, a stream. |
| reef | A ridge of rocks, lying near the surface of the sea, which may be visible at low tide, but is usually covered by water. |
| glacial feature | A hydrographic feature characterized by the dominance of snow or ice. |
| ice sheet | A mass of glacier ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than 50,000 km2. |
| glacier | A large, slow moving river of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity. |
| permafrost | Soil at or below the freezing point of water (0C or 32F) for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. |
| buffer zone | A geographical region that serves the purpose of keeping two or more other areas (often, but not necessarily, countries) distant from one another, for whatever reason. |
| demilitiarized zone | A geographical area, usually the frontier or boundary between two or more military powers (or alliances), where military activity is not permitted, usually by peace treaty, armistice or other bilateral or multilateral agreement. |
| coastal inlet | An opening of the sea into the land. |
| cove | A circular or round inlet with a narrow entrance. |
| irrigation ditch | A ditch that supplies water to surrounding land. |
| drainage ditch | A ditch that collects water from the surrounding land. |
| bank | The sloping margin of a watercourse, serving to confine it to its natural channel. |
| stream bank | The sloping margin of a stream, serving to confine it to its natural channel. |
| river bank | The sloping margin of a river, serving to confine it to its natural channel. |
| aquatic habitat | A habitat that is in or on water. |
| ice cap | A dome-shaped ice mass that covers less than 50,000 km2 of land area (usually covering a highland area). |
| snow field | A region of permanent snow in mountainous areas or high latitudes. |
| ocean current | The region occupied by any more or less continuous, directed movement of ocean water that flows in one of the Earth's oceans. Ocean Currents are rivers of hot or cold water within the ocean. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature and salinity differences and the gravitation of the moon. The depth contours, the shoreline and other movements influence the direction and strength of the movements of water that forms a given current. |
| riffle | A shallow stretch of a river or stream, where the current is above the average stream velocity and where the water forms small rippled waves as a result. It often consists of a rocky bed of gravels or other small stones. |
| artificial reef | Chains of rocks or coral at or near the surface of water constructed by man. |
| coral reef | Aragonite structures produced by living organisms, found in shallow, marine waters with little nutrients in the water. |
| sabkha | An alkaline flat, in the context of a marine environment. |
| anabranch | A section of a river or stream that diverts from the main course and rejoins later. |
| headwater | The upper part of a river system, denoting the upper basin and source streams of a river. |
| flood meadow | An area of grassland or pasture beside a river, subject to seasonal flooding. |
| cirque | A deep natural hollow near the crest of a mountain, usually formed by a glacier. |
| desert oasis | A small, isolated, fertile or green area in a desert region, usually having a spring or well. |
| peat cut | An artificial working of peatland to remove the peat. |
| causeway | A road or railway elevated by a bank, usually across a broad body of water or wetland. |
| sugar plantation | |
| sisal plantation | |
| banana plantation | |
| tea plantation | |
| coffee plantation | |
| rubber plantation | |
| asphalt lake | A lake formed of a natural deposit of alphalt, a black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid composed of fossil hydrocarbons. |
| atoll | An oceanic island, often having a characteristic ring-like shape surrounding a lagoon. Atolls are formed when coral reef grows around a volcanic island that later subsides into the ocean. |
| bar | A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water. Bars tend to be long and narrow (linear) and develop where a current (or waves) promote deposition of granular material, resulting in localized shallowing (shoaling) of the water. Bars can appear in the sea, in a lake, or in a river. They are typically composed of sand, although could be of any granular matter that the moving water has access to and is capable of shifting around (for example, soil, silt, gravel, cobble, shingle, or even boulders). The grain size of the material comprising a bar is related: to the size of the waves or the strength of the currents moving the material, but the availability of material to be worked by waves and currents is also important. |
| blowhole | A hole in coastal rock through which sea water is forced by a rising tide or waves and spurted through an outlet into the air. |
| canyon | Relatively narrow, deep depression with steep sides, the bottom of which generally has a continuous slope. |
| dune | A hill of sand built by eolian processes. |
| river valley | A valley that contains, and has been formed by, a river. |
| sandy desert | |
| rocky desert | |
| isthmus | Narrow section of land in a body of water connecting two larger land areas. |
| karst | A feature shaped by the dissolution of a soluble layer or layers of bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite. These landscapes display distinctive surface features and underground drainages, and in some examples there may be little or no surface drainage. |
| elevation | A landform elevated above the surrounding area. |
| moraine | An accumulation of boulders, stones, or other debris carried and deposited by a glacier. |
| levee | An artificial slope or wall, usually earthen, which parallels the course of a river, built for the purpose of containing the river. |
| mesa | An elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. Mesas form in areas where horizontally layered rocks are uplifted by tectonic activity. |
| mound | A rounded elevated area. |
| nunatak | The exposed summit of a ridge, mountain, or peak not covered with ice or snow within an ice field or glacier. The term is typically used in areas where a permanent ice mass is present. |
| plateau | An elevated and comparatively level expanse of land. |
| stony desert | A desert plain characterized by a surface veneer of gravel or stones. |
| hanging valley | A tributary valley with the floor at a higher relief than the main channel into which it flows. They are most commonly associated with U-shaped valleys when a tributary glacier flows into a glacier of larger volume. |
| raised mire | Rain-fed, potentially deep peatlands occurring principally in lowland areas across much of Northern Europe, as well as in the former USSR, North America and parts of the southern hemisphere. |
| string mire | Flat or concave peatlands with a string-like pattern of hummocks (hence the name), found principally in northern Scandinavia but occurring in the western parts of the former USSR and in North America. A few examples exist in northern Britain. |
| tundra mire | Peatlands with a shallow peat layer, only about 500 mm thick, dominated by sedges and grasses. They form in permafrost areas, covering around 110,000 to 160,000 km2 in Alaska, Canada, and the former USSR. |
| paisa mire | Peatland typified by characteristic high mounds, each with a permanently frozen core, with wet depressions between the mounds. These develop where the ground surface is frozen only for part of the year, and are common in the former USSR, Canada and parts of Scandinavia. |
| peat swamp | Forested peatlands including both rain- and groundwater-fed types, commonly recorded in tropical regions with high rainfall. This type of peatland covers around 350,000 km2, primarily in south-east Asia but also occurring in the Everglades in Florida. |
| abyssal feature | Feature on the ocean floor at a depth of 3500 - 6000 meters. |
| physiographic feature | |
| mudflat | A wetland that forms when mud is deposited by the tides, rivers, sea or oceans. |
| olive grove | |
| scree | Broken rock that appears at the bottom of crags, mountain cliffs or valley shoulders. |
| sinkhole | A natural depression or hole in the surface topography caused by the removal of soil or bedrock, often both, by water. Sinkholes may vary in size from less than a meter to several hundred meters both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. |
| alkaline flat | A dry lakebead consisting of fine-grained sediments infused with alkali salts. Generally the shore or bed of an endorheic lake. |
| endorheic lake | A lake from which there is no outflow of water, either on the surface as rivers, or underground by flow or diffusion through rock or permeable material. |
| subglacial lake | A lake permanently covered by ice. |
| meromictoc lake | A lake which has layers of water which do not intermix. The deepest layer of water in such a lake does not contain any dissolved oxygen. The layers of sediment at the bottom of a meromictic lake remain relatively undisturbed because there are no living organisms to stir them up. |
| periglacial lake | A lake, part of whose margin is formed by an ice mass, ice cap or glacier, the ice having obstructed the natural drainage of the land. |
| fjord lake | A lake in a glacially eroded valley, which has been eroded below sea level. |
| oxbow lake | A lake which is formed when a wide meander from a stream or a river is cut off to form a lake. They are called oxbow lakes due to the distinctive curved shape that results from this process. |
| rift lake | A lake which forms as a result of subsidence along a geological fault in the Earth's tectonic plates. |
| ephemeral spring | A spring whose flow is intermittent. |
| permanent spring | A spring whose flow is continuous. |
| neritic zone | The water mass of an ocean directly above a continental shelf. |
| oceanic zone | The water mass of an ocean that is not above a continental shelf. |
| pelagic zone | An open ocean region. |
| photic zone | The zone of an ocean from the surface to 200m where photosynthesis can occur, due to the penetration of light. |
| aphotic zone | The zone of an ocean below 200m, in which photosynthesis cannot occur due to the lack of light. |
| bathypelagic zone | The one of an ocean below the 10degC thermocline down to a temperature of 4degC. |
| abyssalpelagic zone | The zone of the ocean below the bathypelagic zone, with its lowest boundary at about 6000m. |
| mesopelagic zone | The zone of an ocean immediately below the photic zone down to a depth where the water temperature is 10degC (the thermocline). |
| hadalpelagic zone | The zone of an ocean in oceanic trenches, lying between 6000m and 10,000m. |
| hydrothermal vent | A fissure in the Earths's surface from which geothermally heated water issues. |
| fumarole | A hole in the Earth's crust from which steam and gases are emitted. |
| solfatara | A fumarole that emits sulfurous gases. |
| black smoker | A hydrothermal vent found on the ocean floor. The vents are formed in fields hundreds of meters wide when superheated water from below the Earth's crust comes through the ocean floor. The superheated water is rich in dissolved minerals from the crust, most notably sulfides, which crystallize to create a chimney-like structure around each vent. When the superheated water in the vent comes in contact with the cold ocean water, many minerals are precipitated, creating the distinctive black color. The metal sulfides that are deposited can become massive sulfide ore deposits in time. |
| landlocked sea | A sea that is not connected with an ocean. |
| archipelago | A group of geographically or geologically associated islands. |
| continental island | An island that lies on a continental shelf. |
| oceanic island | An island that does not sit on a continental shelf, and is of volcanic origin. |
| continental shelf | The extended perimeter of each continent, which is covered during interglacial periods such as the current epoch by relatively shallow sea. |
| slightly stratified estuary | An estuary whose river output is less than the marine input. Here, turbulence causes mixing of the whole water column, such that salinity varies more longitudinally rather than vertically. |
| highly stratified estuary | An estuary whose river output and marine input are more even, with river flow still dominant; turbulence induces more mixing of salt water upward than the reverse. |
| saline wedge estuary | An estuary whose river output greatly exceeds marine input; there is little mixing, and thus a sharp contrast between fresh surface water and saline bottom water. |
| vertically mixed estuary | An estuary whose river output is less than the marine input. Here, turbulence causes mixing of the whole water column, such that salinity varies more longitudinally rather than vertically. |
| inverse estuary | An estuary located in regions with high evaporation, there is no freshwater input and in fact salinity increases inland; overall flow is inward at the surface, downwells at the inland terminus, and flows outward subsurface. |
| intermittent estuary | An estuary that varies dramatically depending on freshwater input, and is capable of changing from a wholly marine embayment to any of the other estuary types. |
| coastal wetland | A wetland associated with the part of the land adjoining or near a sea or ocean. |
| moor | A wetland found in upland areas, characterised by acidic soils. |
| fen | A freshwater peat land with chemically basic (which roughly means alkaline) ground water. |
| swamp | A wetland that features permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water, generally with a substantial number of hummocks, or dry-land protrusions. |
| bayou | A small, slow-moving stream or creek; usually located in low-lying areas. |
| carr | A fen which has developed to the point where it supports trees. |
| dambo | A class of complex shallow wetlands in central, southern and eastern Africa, particularly in Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are generally found in higher rainfall flat plateau areas, and have river-like branching forms which may be nowhere very large, but common enough to add up to a large area. |
| hydromorphic/phreatic dambo | A danbo associated with a headwater. |
| fluvial dambo | A dambo associated with a river. |
| pocasin | A palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. Groundwater saturates the soil except during brief seasonal dry spells and during prolonged droughts. Pocosin soils are nutrient deficient (oligotrophic), especially in phosphorus. |
| saline wetland | |
| tidal mudflat | A level tract lying at a small depth below the surface of water, or alternately covered and left bare by the tide. |
| lacustrine mudflat | A wetland that forms when mud is deposited by a stream. |
| freshwater wetland | A wetland whose water that contains low concentrations of salts. |
| abyssal plain | A flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. |
| maar | A broad, low relief crater that results from a phreatic eruption or explosion caused by groundwater contact with hot lava or magma. The maar typically fills with water to form a relatively shallow crater lake. |
| volcanic crater | A crater formed by a volcano, within which occurs a vent (or vents) from which magma erupts as gases, lava, and ejecta. |
| volcano | An opening, or rupture, in the Earth's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash and gases to escape from deep below the surface. |
| glacial valley | A valley that contains, or contained, a glacier and was formed by glacial activity. Typically U-shaped in cross-section. |
| lateral moraine | The parallel ridges of till deposited along the sides of an alglacier. The unconsolidated debris is deposited on top of the glacier by frost shattering of the valley walls and from tributary streams flowing into the valley. The till is carried along the glacial margin until the glacier melts. |
| medial moraine | A moriane formed when the inside lateral moraines of two glaciers merge together. They form a ridge down the center of the combined glaciers. |
| ground moraine | A till covered area with irregular topography and no ridges, often forming gently rolling hills or plains. Forms by the accumulation of till under the ice by lodgement, but may also be deposited as the glacier retreats. |
| terminal moraine | Ridges of unconsolidated debris deposited at the snout or end of the glacier. They usually reflect the shape of the glacier's terminus. |
| scroll plane | A plain where a stream meanders across an area with a very low gradient, usually with a fairly continuous discharge. In addition to meanders, scroll plains are also characterised by many oxbow lakes. |
| till plan | An extensive flat plain of glacial till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of a glacier and melts in place depositing the sediments it carried. |
| flood plain | An area which is subject to periodic flooding. |
| floodway | The stream channel and adjacent areas that carry flood flows in a flood plain. |
| flood fringe | Area of a flood plane covered by the flood, but which do not experience a strong current. |
| alluvial plain | Arelatively flat and gently sloping landform found at the base of a range of hills or mountains, formed by the deposition of alluvial soil over a long period of time by one or more streams coming from the mountains. |
| lacustrine plain | A plain that originally formed in a lacustrine environment, that is, as the bed of a lake, but from which the water has disappeared, by natural drainage, evaporation or other geophysical processes. |
| prairie | An area of land of low topographic relief that historically supported grasses and herbs, with few trees, and having generally a mesic (moderate or temperate) climate. Dominated by tall grasses (contrast steppe). |
| savanna | A grassland of the tropics or subtropics with scattered trees. |
| steppe | A plain without trees (apart from those near rivers and lakes); it is similar to a prairie, although a prairie is generally considered as being dominated by tall grasses, while short grasses are said to be normal in the steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude. |
| fissure cave | A narrow, verical cave passage, often developed along a joint but not necessarily so. Usually due to solution but sometimes to tension. |
| seamount | A mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island. Typically formed from volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of 1,000 - 4,000 meters depth. Independent features that rise to at least 1,000 meters above the seafloor. |
| guyot | A flat-topped seamount. |
| pasture | Grassland used for grazing of ungulate livestock as part of a farm or ranch. |
| submarine canyon | A steep-sided valley on the sea floor of the continental slope. Many submarine canyons are found as extensions to large rivers; however there are many that have no such association. Canyons cutting the continental slopes have been found at depths greater than 2 km below sea level. Many submarine canyons continue as submarine channels across continental rise areas and may extend for hundreds of kilometers. |
| lake bed | The ground surface that lies beneath a lake. |
| land-tied island | A continental island connected to its adjacent land by a natural feature, such as a causeway. |
| beaver pond | A pond that has formed as a consequence of the activities of beavers, building a beaver dam. |
| chott | A dry (salt) lake in the Saharan area of Africa that stays dry in the summer, but receive some water in the winter. This water may come as a groundwater discharge. |
| confluence | The point where a tributary joins a more major river. |
| continental slope | The seabed below the end of the continental shelf (the shelf break). The continental slope is much steeper than the shelf; the average angle is 3, but it can be as low as 1 or as high as 10. The slope is often cut with submarine canyons. |
| continental rise | The continental rise is below the continental slope, but landward of the abyssal plains. Its gradient is intermediate between the slope and the shelf, on the order of 0.5-1. Extending as far as 500 km from the slope, it consists of thick sediments deposited by turbidity currents from the shelf and slope. Sediment cascades down the slope and accumulates as a pile of sediment at the base of the slope, called the continental rise. |
| ocean trench | Hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are the deepest parts of the ocean floor. |
| drumlin | 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 into the glacial movement. Drumlins are sometimes compared to kames, but their formation is distinctively different. A drumlin is not originally shaped by meltwater, but by the ice itself and has a quite regular shape. It occurs in fine grained material, such as clay or shale, not in sands and gravels. And drumlins usually have concentric layers of material, as the ice successively plasters new layers in its movement. |
| dry lake | A lake that has either permanently or temporally lost its water. |
| dry stream | A stream that has either permanently or temporally lost its water. |
| saline pan | A flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals, usually shining white under the sun. A salt pan is formed where water pools. A saline pan would be a lake or a pond if it were located in a climate where the rate of water evaporation were not faster than the rate of water precipitation, i.e., if it were not in a desert. If the water is unable to drain into the ground, it remains on the surface until it evaporates, leaving behind whatever minerals were dissolved. Over thousands of years, the minerals (usually salts) accumulate on the surface. |
| escarpment | A transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves an elevation differential, often involving high cliffs. Most commonly a transition from one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of a different age and composition. In such cases, the escarpment usually represents the line of erosional loss of the newer rock over the older. |
| fault escarpment | An escarpment resulting from a fault. |
| esker | A long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America. |
| ridge | A long and narrow upland with steep sides. |
| quarry | An open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. |
| quicksand area | A bed of loose sand mixed with water forming a soft, shifting mass that yields easily to pressure. |
| polder | An area reclaimed from the sea by diking and draining. |
| butte | An isolated hill with steep sides and a small flat top, smaller than mesas and plateaus. Buttes are formed by erosion when a cap of hard rock, usually of volcanic origin, covers a layer of softer rock that is easily worn away. This hard rock avoids erosion while the rock around it wears down. |
| cotton plantation | |
| horst | The raised fault block bounded by normal faults. The raised block is a portion of the Earth's crust that has remained stationary while the land has sunk on either side of it or has been crushed by a mountain range against it. |
| graben | A depressed block of land bordered by parallel faults. A graben is the result of a block of land being downthrown producing a valley with a distinct scarp on each side. Grabens often occur side-by-side with horsts. Horst and graben structures are indicative of tensional forces and crustal stretching. |
| drainage basin | A regions or area bounded by drainage divides and occupied by a drainage system; specifically the tract of country that gathers water originating as precipitation and contributes it to a particular stream channel or system of channels, or to a lake, reservoir, or other body of water. |
| watershed | The separation between neighbouring drainage basins (catchments). In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical peaks and ridges, but in flat country or on a high plateau (especially where the ground is marshy) the divide may be invisible - just a more or less notional line on the ground on either side of which falling raindrops will start a journey to different rivers, and even to different sides of a country or continent. |
| continental divide | A watershed such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of the continent. |
| fish farm | A facility in which fish are raised commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. |
| fish hatchery | A facility where eggs of fish are hatched under artificial conditions. |
| rice field | A paddy field for the cultivation of rice. |
| paddy field | A flooded parcel of arable land used for growing rice and other semiaquatic crops. |
| iceberg | A large mass of detached land ice in the sea or stranded in shallow water. |
| ice mass | Fields of ice, formed in regions of perennial frost. |
| scrubland | Area covered with low-growing or stunted perennial vegetation and usually not mixed with trees. |
| chaparal | A shrubland area found primarily in regions with a Mediterranean climate (mid, wet winters and hot dry summers) often shaped by wildfires. |
| rift valley | A valley created by the formation of a rift, i.e. place where the Earth's crust and lithosphere are being pulled apart by tectonic forces. |
| coast | The general region of indefinite width that extends from the sea inland to the first major change in terrain features. |
| shore | That part of the land in immediate contact with a body of water including the area between high and low water lines. |
| peninsula | A body of land jutting out into and nearly surrounded by water. |
| spit | A deposition landform found off coasts. A spit is a type of bar or beach that develops where a re-entrant occurs, such as at a cove, bay, ria, or river mouth. Spits are formed by the movement of sediment (typically sand) along a shore by a process known as longshore drift. Where the direction of the shore turns inland (reenters) the longshore current spreads out or dissipates. No longer able to carry the full load, much of the sediment is dropped. This causes a bar to build out from the shore, eventually becoming a spit. |
| icefall | A portion of a glacier characterized by rapid flow and a chaotic crevassed surface. |
| dune slack | A valley or trough between two dunes. |
| depression | A landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area. |
| impact crater | A crater caused by the impact of a meteor. |
| kettle | A fluvioglacial landform occurring as the result of blocks of ice calving from the front of a receding glacier and becoming partially to wholly buried by glacial outwash. Glacial outwash is generated when sediment laden streams of meltwater flow away from the glacier and are deposited to form broad outwash plains called sandurs. When the ice blocks melt, holes are left in the sandur. |
| sandur | The plain formed by the large amounts of silt and sediment, picked up as a glacier erodes the underlying rocks as it moves slowly downhill, and at the snout of the glacier, meltwater can carry this sediment away from the glacier and deposit it on a broad plain. The material in the outwash plain is often size-sorted by the water runoff of the melting glacier with the finest materials, like silt, being the most distantly re-deposited, whereas larger boulders are the closest to the original terminus of the glacier. |
| blowout | A sandy depression in a sand dune ecosystem (psammosere) caused by the removal of sediments by wind. |
| alluvial fan | A fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. |
| bajada | A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope. |
| intertidal zone | The area of the foreshore and seabed that is exposed to the air at low tide and submerged at high tide, i.e., the area between tide marks. |
| tidal pool | Pools formed as a high tide comes in over a rocky shore. Water fills depressions in the ground, which turn into isolated pools as the tide retreats. |
| high tide zone | The tide zone that is flooded during high tide only, and is a highly saline environment. |
| low tide zone | The tidal zone that is mostly submerged, only being exposed at the point of low tide and for a longer period of time during extremely low tides. |
| crevasse | A deep fissure in snow or ice. |
| joint-plane cave | A cavity developed along a joint and elongate in cross-section. |
| lava cave | A cave in a lava flow. |
| live cave | A cave containing a stream or active speleothems. |
| outflow cave | A cave from which a stream flows or formerly did so and which cannot be followed upstream to the surface. |
| polje | A large closed depression draining underground, witha flat floor across which there may be an intermittent or perennial stream and which may be liable to flood and become a lake. The floor makes a sharp break with parts of surrounding slopes. |
| sea cave | A cave in present-day or emerged sea cliffs, formed by wave attack or solution. |
| speleothem | A secondary mineral deposit formed in caves, most commonly calcite. |
| vadoze zone | The zone where voids in the rock are partly filled. |
| phreatic zone | Zone where voids in the rock are completely filled. |
| stalagmite | A speleothem projecting vertically upwards from a cave floor and formed by precipitation from drips. |
| stalactite | A speleothem hanging downwards from a roof or wall, of cylindrical or conical form, usually with a central hollow tube. |
| doline | A closed depression draining underground in karst, ofsimple but variable form, e.g. cylindrical, conical, bowl- or dish-shaped. From a few to many hundreds of metres in dimensions. |
| subjacent karst | Karst developed in soluble beds underlying other rock formations; the surface may or may not be affected by the karst development. |
| syngenetic karst | Karst developed in eolian calcarenite when the development of karst features has taken place at the same time as the lithification of dune sand. |
| polygonal karst | Karst completely pitted by closed depressions so that divides between them form a crudely polygonal network. |
| doline karst | Karst dominated by closed depressions, chiefly dolines, perforating a simple surface. |
| orange juice | The liquid that can be mechanically extracted an orange. |
| vomit | Vomit is a bodily fluid consisting of the expulsed contents of the stomach of an organism disgorged through the mouth or nose. |
| piece of rock | An abiotic mesoscopic feature made of the mineral material of the crust of the Earth. |
| grain of sand | |
| piece of gravel | rock whose pieces are at least two millimeters (2mm) in its largest dimension (about 1/12 of an inch) and no more than 75 millimeters (about 3 inches). |
| ice cap dome | A comparatively elevated area on an icecap. |
| particle of silt | |
| grain of desert sand | |
| grain of beach sand | |
| grain of acid dune sand | |
| grain of sea sand | |
| grain of rocky sand | |
| terrarium | |
| somma volcano | A volcanic caldera that has been partially filled by a new central cone. |
| volcanic arc | A chain of volcanic islands or mountains formed by plate tectonics as an oceanic tectonic plate subducts under another tectonic plate and produces magma. |
| continental arc | A volcanic arc formed by the subduction of oceanic crust below continental crust. |
| island arc | A volcanic arc formed by the subduction of oceanic crust other oceanic crust on an adjacent tectonic plate. |
| volcanic field | A region of the earth's crust that is prone to localized volcanic activity. |
| monogenetic volcanic field | A volcanic field of small, scattered volcanic vents. These volcanic fields, containing numerous monogenetic volcanoes, are noted for having only one short eruptive event. Monogenetic fields occur only where the magma supply to the volcano is low or where vents are not close enough or large enough to develop plumbing systems for continuous feeding of magma. |
| pyroclastic cone | A cone made of material ejected from a volcano. The material can range from finest particles. In comparison, cinder cones are more uniform. They are usually found in or on larger features, such as stratovolcanoes, shield volcanoes and can be found inside calderas, however they can also be an independent feature. They can range from a few metres in height and are usually formed by a single eruption. |
| lock | A device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber whose water level can be varied. |
| protected area | An area of land and/or a body of water especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means. |
| natural monument | A natural/cultural feature of outstanding or unique value because of its inherent rarity, representative of aesthetic qualities or cultural significance. |
| national forest | A protected forest or woodland area in the United States. National forests are controlled by the federal government and managed by the United States Forest Service, under the direction of the United States Department of Agriculture. |
| site of special scientific interest | A conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic 'building block' of nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations are based upon them, including National Nature Reserves, Ramsar Sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. |
| marine park | A protected area of the sea usually established to preserve a specific habitat and ensure the ecosystem is sustained for the organisms that exist there. Most marine parks are designated by governments, and organized like watery national parks. |
| nature reserve | A protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research. Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. |
| national wildlife refuge | A designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge system is a network of lands and waters managed to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat. |
| ramsar site | A wetland protected by the terms of the Ramsar Convention (The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, especially as Waterfowl Habitat). |
| national nature reserve | A United Kingdom government conservation designation for a nature reserve of national significance for biological or earth science interest. |
| national park | A reserve of land, usually, but not always declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are a protected area of IUCN category II. |
| ephemeral island | An island, usually the consequence of the activity of a submarinenvolcano, that only exists for a short period or short periods of time after its formation, then being eroded or otherwise disappearing beneath thensurface of a body of water. |
| brine pool | A large area of brine on the ocean basin near cold seep vents which release methane into the water. These pools are concentrations of water having an extremely high salinity as compared to the surrounding ocean, caused by the motion of large salt deposits through salt tectonics. |
| tuya | A distinctive, flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lavanerupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. |
| complex volcano | A volcano with more than one feature. They form because changes ofntheir eruptive characteristics or the location of multiple vents in annarea. Stratovolcanoes may form complex volcanoes, because they may overlapnanother from explosive eruptions, lava flows, pyroclastic flows and bynrepeated eruptions, to make multiple summits and vents. Stratovolcanoesncould also form a large caldera that gets filled in by multiple smallncinder cones, lava domes and craters may also develop on the caldera'snrim. |
| pyroclastic shield volcano | A shield volcano that isformed mostly of pyroclastic and highlynexplosive eruptions rather than relatively fluid basaltic lava issuing fromnvents or fissures on the surface of the volcano. They typically displaynlow-angle flank slopes and have little or no central collapse, although anshallow sag in the shield is commonly observed. Lava is commonly extrudednafter the cessation of explosive activity commonly superposes the ventnregion. |
| geothermal field | An area where wells can be drilled to obtain elements contained innsolution in hot brines or to tap heat energy. |
| wildlife management area | A protected area with the purpose of protecting and managing wildnlife. |
| world heritage site | A protected area that is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. |
| biosphere reserve | An international conservation designation given by UNESCO under itsnProgramme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB). |
| artificial lake | A lake purposefully constructed. |
| canal head reservoir | A reservoir constructed for the purpose of maintaining water levels in a canal or canals. |
| ice shelf | A thick, floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice mass flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. |
| massif | A section of the Earths's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. |
| lake shore | That part of the land in immediate contact with a lake. |
| stream bed | The channel bottom of a stream; the physical confine of the normal water flow. |
| river bed | The channel bottom of a river; the physical confine of the normal water flow. |
| stream mouth | The place where a stream discharges into a lagoon, lake, or the sea. |
| river mouth | The end of a stream where it enters a standing water body such as a lake, sea or ocean. |
| intermittent lake | A lake that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| intermittent watercourse | A watercourse whose flow is not continuous. |
| intermittent wetland | An area that is sometimes inundated or saturated by surface or ground water sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. |
| mountain spur | |
| land bridge | An isthmus or other land connection between what at other times are separate land masses which allows animals and plants to cross and colonise new lands. Land bridges are commonly created by regression, in which sea levels fall exposing previously submerged sections of continental shelf. Land bridges are also formed by: (a) upthrust at the edge of continental plates; and (b) glacial retreat alleviating pressure on shallow marine formations. |
| ice tongue | A long and narrow sheet of ice projecting out from the coastline. An ice tongue forms when a valley glacier moves very rapidly out into the ocean or a lake. |
| sound | A large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land. |
| strait | A narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses. |
| channel | The physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks. |
| marine channel | |
| lake channel | |
| volcanic cone | Built by fragments (called ejecta) thrown up (ejected) from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. |
| ash cone | A cone that is composed of particles of silt to sand size. Explosive eruptions from a vent where the magma is interacting with groundwater or the sea (as in an eruption off the coast) produce steam and are called phreatic. The interaction between the magma, expanding steam, and volcanic gases results in the ejection of mostly small particles called ash. Fallen ash has the consistency of flour. The unconsolidated ash forms an ash cone which becomes a tuff cone or tuff ring once the ash consolidates. |
| cinder cone | A cone built almost entirely of loose volcanic fragments called cinders (pumice, pyroclastics, or tephra). They are built from particles and blobs of congealed lava ejected from a single vent. As the gas-charged lava is blown violently into the air, it breaks into small fragments that solidify and fall as cinders around the vent to form a circular or oval cone. Most cinder cones have a bowl-shaped crater at the summit. |
| spatter cone | A volcanic cone formed of molten lava ejected from a vent somewhat like taffy. Expanding gases in the lava fountains tear the liquid rock into irregular gobs that fall back to earth, forming a heap around the vent. The still partly liquid rock splashed down and over the sides of the developing mound is called spatter. Because spatter is not fully solid when it lands, the individual deposits are very irregular in shape and weld together as they cool, and in this way particularly differ from cinder and ash. |
| mud volcano | A volcano created by geologically excreted liquids and gases, although there are several different processes which may cause such activity. Temperatures are much cooler than igneous processes. |
| shield volcano | A large volcano with shallowly-sloping sides. |
| stratovolcano | A tall, conical volcano composed of many layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash. These volcanoes are characterized by a steep profile and periodic, explosive eruptions. The lava that flows from them is viscous, and cools and hardens before spreading very far. The source magma of this rock is classified as acidic, or high in silica to intermediate (rhyolite, dacite, or andesite). |
| mid-ocean ridge | An underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics. This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the oceanic crust and create magma where two tectonic plates meet at a divergent boundary. The mid-ocean ridges of the world are connected and form a single global mid-oceanic ridge system that is part of every ocean. |
| subglacial volcano | A volcano produced by subglacial eruptions or eruptions beneath the surface of a lake melted into a glacier or ice mass by the rising lava. |
| volcanic fissure | A linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is usually a few meters wide and may be many kilometers long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basalts and hannels. The volcano can usually be seen as a crack in the ground or on the ocean floor. Narrow fissures can be filled in with lava that hardens. |
| whirlpool | A large, swirling body of water produced by ocean tides. |
| kipuka | An elevated area such as a hill, ridge or old lava dome inside or downslope from an area of active volcanism. New lava flows will cover the surrounding land, isolating the kipuka so that it appears as a (usually) forested island in a barren lava flow. |
| ford | The shallow part of a stream which can be easily crossed. |
| tidal watercourse | |
| pingo | A mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic, subarctic, and Antarctica that can reach up to 70 metres in height and up to 2 kilometres in diameter. |
| natural arch | A natural formation where a rock arch forms, with a natural passageway through underneath. |
| raised beach | A beach or wave cut platform raised above the shore line by a relative fall in the sea level. |
| coastal dune | |
| machair | A fertile low-lying raised beach found on the some of the coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular in the Outer Hebrides. |
| ria | A submergent coastal landform that forms where sea levels rise relative to the land either as a result of eustatic sea level change; where the global sea levels rise or isostatic sea level change; where the land sinks. When this happens valleys which were previously at sea level become submerged. |
| stack | A geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast. |
| tombolo | A deposition landform such as a spit or bar which forms a narrow piece of land between an island or offshore rock and a mainland shore, or between two islands or offshore rocks. They usually form because the island causes wave refraction, depositing sand and shingle moved by longshore drift in each direction around the island where the waves meet. Eustatic sea level rise may also contribute to accretion as material is pushed up with rising sea levels. |
| wave-cut platform | The narrow flat area often seen at the base of a sea cliff caused by the action of the waves. |
| limestone pavement | A natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles artificial pavement. |
| river island | An island that lies in a river. |
| lake island | An island that lies in a lake. |
| cold seep | An area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs. Cold seeps are distinct from hydrothermal vents: the former's emissions are of the same temperature as the surrounding seawater, whereas the latter's emissions are super-heated. |
| ocean floor | The surface that underlies an ocean. |
| meander | A bend in a stream. A stream flowing through a wide valley or flat plain will tend to form a meanders as it alternatively erodes and deposits sediments along its course. |
| biome | A major class of ecologically similar communities of plants, animals, and other organisms. Biomes are defined based on factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs, and grasses), leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna), and other factors like climate. Unlike ecozones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic, or historical similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of ecological succession and climax vegetation. |
| arete | A thin, almost knife-like, ridge of rock which is typically formed when two glaciers erode parallel U-shaped valleys. The arte is a thin ridge of rock that is left separating the two valleys. Artes can also form when two glacial cirques erode towards one another, although frequently this results in a saddle-shaped pass, called a col. |
| dirt cone | A feature of a glacier, in which dirt, which has fallen into a hollow in the ice, forms a coating which insulates the ice below. The surrounding ice melts away, leaving the dirt cone. |
| drumlin field | A cluster of dozens to hundreds of similarly shaped, sized and oriented drumlins. |
| monadnock | An isolated hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. |
| kame terrace | A terrace associated with a kame. |
| outwash fan | A fan-shaped body of sediments deposited by braided streams from a melting glacier. |
| proglacial lake | A lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine or ice dam during the retreat of a melting glacier, or one formed by meltwater trapped against an ice mass due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ice. |
| tunnel valley | A deep but narrow valley with a 'U' shaped cross-section and frequently a 'U' shaped plan which is usually found filled with glacial till. It is formed when the edge of an ice mass advances up a slope. Its length may be appropriately measured in centimetres or kilometres, depending on the circumstances of formation. |
| Nye channel | A small tunnel valley. |
| alas | A steep-sided depression formed by the melting of permafrost; it may contain a lake. |
| dell | A small wooded valley, either U- or V-shaped. |
| rock shelter | A shallow cave-like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff. |
| terracette | A ridge on a hillside formed when saturated soil particles expand, then contract as they dry, causing them to move slowly downhill. |
| maelstrom | A very powerful whirlpool. |
| flood control reservoir | A reservoir constructed for the purpose of containing a flood, an overflow of water from a body of water that sumerges land. |
| clearing | An open area in a forest. |
| transvasement | An aquaduct to transport water from one river basin to another one, to solve problems of hydrographic imbalance. It can decrease floods, moving the water to lands with droughts. |
| terrestrial biome | A biome that applies to the terrestrial realm. |
| marine biome | A biome that applies to the marine realm. |
| hydroelectric reservoir | A reservoir constructed for the purpose of generating electricity. |
| drinking water reservoir | A reservoir constructed for the purpose of providing drinking water. |
| irrigation reservoir | A reservoir constructed for the purpose of providing water for irrigation. |
| amenity lake | A lake constructed, or modified, for the chief purpose of providing an amenity. |
| ribbon lake | A lake that is long, narrow, and finger-shaped, usually found in a glacial trough. Its formation begins when a glacier moves over an area containing alternate bands of hard and soft bedrock. The sharp-edged boulders carried at the bottom of the glacier erode the softer rock more quickly by abrasion, thus creating a hollow called a rock basin. On either side of the rock basin, the more resistant rock is eroded less and these outcrops of harder rock are known as rock bars, which act as dams between which rainwater may accumulate after the retreat of the ice age, filling up the rock basin and creating a ribbon lake. A ribbon lake may also form behind a terminal or recessional moraine, both of which also act as dams, enabling water to accumulate behind them. A ribbon lake may also occur if a tributary glacier joins a main glacier. The increase in power can create a trough, which is filled with water from a river/meltwater to create a ribbon lake. |
| liman | A lake or estuary that is formed at the mouth of a river where flow is blocked by a bar of sediments. It can be maritime (the bar being created by the current of a sea) or fluvial (the bar being created by the flow of a bigger river at the confluence). |
| turlough | An intermittent lake unique to the limestone areas of Ireland, mostly west of the River Shannon. Most turloughs flood in the autumn, usually some time in October, and then dry up some time between April and July. |
| tarn | A mountain lake that is formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn. |
| tidewater glacier | A glacier that flows into the sea. |
| plateau glacier | A glacier on a plateau or high area, smaller than an ice sheet. |
| valley glacier | A glacier that forms in a mountain valley. |
| outlet glacier | A glacier fed by an ice sheet. |
| penplain | A region of low topographic relief as a consequence of erosion by streams. |
| pseudocrater | A volcanic landform which resembles a true volcanic crater, but differs in that it is not an actual vent from which lava has erupted. A pseudocrater is characterised by the absence of any magma conduit which connects below the surface of the earth. Pseudocraters are formed by steam explosions as flowing hot lava crosses over a wet surface, such as a swamp, a lake, or a pond. The explosive gases break through the lava surface in a manner similar to a phreatic eruption, and the tephra builds up crater-like forms which can appear very similar to real volcanic craters. |
| polygenetic volcanic field | A volcanic field of scattered volcanic vents. These volcanic fields, containing numerous polygenetic volcanoes, are noted for having more than one eruptive event from the same vent(s), rather than the more common monogenetic volcanic field. Polygenetic volcanic fields generally occur where there is a high-level magma chamber. These volcanic fields may show lithological discontinuities due to major changes in magma chemistry, volcanotectonic events, or long erosional intervals, and may last >10 million year period. |
| harbor | A place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. |
| artificial harbor | A harbor constructed by human agency. |
| natural harbor | A harbor which is formed by a natural landform where a part of a bodynof water is protected andndeep enough to furnish anchorage. |
| marine hydrographic feature | |
| university campus | An area of land on which a college or university and relatedninstitutional buildings are situated. |
| hydroelectric dam | A dam constructed for the purpose of generating electricity from thenwater stored behind it. |
| research facility | A facility, permanent or temporary, on land, in air, space or water,nwhere scientific research or measurements can be undertaken. |
| irrigation dam | A dam constructed for the purpose of holding water in a reservoir fornirrigation. |
| flood control dam | A dam constructed for the purpose of controlling flooding. |
| backwater | An area of calm water unaffected by the current of a stream. |
| gravel pit | A quarry from which gravel is extracted. |
| cut | An excavation of the Earth's surface to provide passage for a road, railway, canal, etc. |
| inlet | An opening of the sea into the land, or of a lake into its shore. |
| lake inlet | An opening of a lake into its shore. |
| mount | A mountain or a hill. |
| range of mounts | |
| mouth | The exit or point of discharge of a stream into another stream, lake or sea. |
| peak | The summit of a mount. |
| pinnacle | A tall, slender, spire-shaped rock projecting from a level or more gently sloping surface. |
| sea floor | The ground surface that lies beneath a sea. |
| plunge pool | A hollow eroded by the force of the falling water at the base of a waterfall, particularly by the eddying effect. |
| polynya | Any enclosed water area in pack ice other than a lead, not large enough to be called open water. When frozen over, a polyna becomes an ice skylight from the point of view of the submariner. |
| sea shore | That part of the land in immediate contact with a sea, including the intertidal zone. |
| shoreline | The line of contact between a body of water and the land. |
| paternoster lake | One of a series of glacial lakes connected by a single stream or a braided stream system. |
| glacial lake | A lake associated with a glacier. |
| palsa | A low oval elevation in areas with permafrost, frequently peat bogs, where a perennial ice lens has developed within the soil. A palsa consists, similarly to a pingo, of an ice core and overlying soil materials, in case of a palsa usually boggy soil. Palsas are characteristically found in areas with discontinuous permafrost and in such areas bay be the only reliable surface evidence of permafrost. A palsa needs large quantities of water for the formation of its ice core (i.e. ice lens), which is why they frequently emerge from and are bound by boggy soils, which can store enormous quantities of water in their pores. Palsas develop particularly in moorlands and are therefore also named palsamoors. |
| consequent stream | A stream whose course is a direct consequence of the original slope of the surface upon which it developed, i.e., a stream that follows the slope of the original land. |
| subsequent stream | A stream whose course has been determined by selective headward erosion along weak strata. These streams have generally developed after the original stream. Subsequent streams developed independently of the original relief of the land and generally follow paths determined by the weak rock belts. |
| resequent stream | A stream whose course follows the original relief, but at a lower level than the original slope (e.g., flows down a course determined by the underlying strata in the same direction). These streams develop later and are generally a tributary to a subsequent stream. |
| obsequent stream | A stream flowing in the opposite direction of the consequent drainage. |
| insequent stream | A stream that has an almost random drainage often forming dendritic patterns. These are typically tributaries and have developed by a headward erosion on a horizontally stratified belt or on homogeneous rocks. These streams follow courses that apparently were not controlled by the original slope of the surface, its structure or the type of rock. |
| tributary | A stream or river which flows into another river (a parent river) or body of water but which may not flow directly into the sea. |
| rill | A narrow and shallow incision into soil resulting from erosion by overland flow that has been focused into a thin thread by soil surface roughness. Rilling, the process of rill formation, is common on agricultural land and unvegetated ground. |
| rincon | An incised meander on a river. |
| volcanic dike | An intrusive igneous body. Its thickness is usually much smaller than its other two dimensions. Thickness can vary from sub-centimeter scale to many meters in thickness and the lateral dimensions can extend over many kilometers. A dike is an intrusion into a cross-cutting fissure, meaning a dike cuts across other pre-existing layers or bodies of rock, this means that a dike is always younger than the rocks that contain it. Dikes are usually high angle to near vertical in orientation, but subsequent tectonic deformation may rotate the sequence of strata through which the dike lies so that the latter becomes horizontal. |
| trough | A linear structural depression that extends laterally over a distance, while being less steep than a trench. A trough can be a narrow basin or a geologic rift. There are various oceanic troughs, troughs found under oceans; examples include the rift along the mid-oceanic ridge and the Cayman Trough. |
| beaver dam | An obstruction in a stream constructed by a beaver. |
| bed | The portion of the ground surface which lies below water. |
| intermittent saline lake | A saline lake that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| intermittent oxbow lake | An oxbow lake that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| intermittent pond | A pond that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| underground irrigation canal | A gently inclined underground tunnel bringing water for irrigation from an aquifer. |
| intermittent reservoir | A reservoir that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| wadi mouth | The lower terminus of a wadi where it widens into an adjoining floodplain, depression, or water body. |
| terrace | A step-like feature between higher and lower ground: a relatively flat or gently inclined shelf of earth, backed and fronted by steep slopes or manmade detaining walls. |
| marine terrace | |
| meander neck | |
| blanket bog | A peatland whose development is mostly independent of basins or topographical features where water collects; it simply covers the landscape like a blanket. Peat develops due to a continuous supply of water from rainfall, maintaining waterlogged conditions on the ground. Blanket bogs are ombrotrophic or rain fed, and as a result their pH lies between 3.5 and 4.2. |
| pond bed | The ground surface that lies beneath a pond. |
| reservoir bed | The ground surface that lies beneath a reservoir. |
| crater | A generally circular saucer or bowl-shaped depression caused by volcanic or meteorite explosive action. |
| road cut | A cut to provide passage for a road. |
| hammock | A patch of ground, distinct from and slightly above the surrounding plain or wetland. Often occurs in groups. |
| lost stream | A surface stream that disappears into an underground channel, or dries up in an arid area. |
| ditch mouth | The exit or point of discharge of a ditch. |
| agricultural terrace | |
| landslide | A mound of earth material, at the base of a slope and the associated scoured area. |
| rockfall | An irregular mass of fallen rock at the base of a cliff or steep slope. |
| canal tunnel | A tunnel through which a canal passes. |
| cutoff | A channel formed as a result of a stream cutting through a meander neck. |
| abandoned watercourse | A former stream or distributary no longer carrying flowing water, but still evident due to lakes, wetland, topographic or vegetation patterns. |
| canalized stream | A stream that has been substantially ditched, diked, or straightened. |
| cleft | A deep narrow slot, notch, or groove in a cliff. |
| interfluve | A relatively undissected upland between adjacent stream valleys. |
| ice cap ridge | A linear elevation on an icecap. |
| beach ridge | A ridge of sand just inland and parallel to the beach, usually in series. |
| apron | A gentle slope, with a generally smooth surface, particularly found around groups of islands and seamounts. |
| ice cap depression | |
| intermittent saline evaporation pond | |
| landfill | A site at which refuse is dumped, normally filling a natural or artificial depression. |
| pothole | |
| weir | A low obstruction built across the path of s stream to raise its level. |
| moatan | An annular depression that may not be continuous, located at the base of many seamounts, islands, and other isolated elevations. |
| boulder field | A high altitude or high latitude bare, flat area covered with large angular rocks. |
| arrugado | An undersea area of subdued corrugations off Baja California. |
| sill | The low part of a gap or saddle separating basins. |
| brackish lake | |
| brackish pond | |
| kame | An irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sorted or stratified sand and gravel that is deposited in contact with the glacial ice. It can have an irregular shape. Kames are often associated with kettles, and this is referred to as kame and kettle topography. When the ice retreats further, the delta kame often collapses. Kame terraces are frequently found along the side of a glacial valley and are the deposits of meltwater streams flowing between the ice and the adjacent valley side. |
| swale | A low tract of land, especially when moist or marshy. The term can refer to a natural landscape feature or a human-created one. When created by humans, this open drain system is designed to manage water runoff. |
| leat | A man-made watercourse, or makeshift aqueduct, often an artificial channel which supplies water to a watermill or its mill pond, collecting water from upstream of the mill so that the natural level of the driving water is above the level of the stream at the mill. Alternatively to may deliver water for mineral washing and concentration, irrigation or to a dye works. |
| shingle beach | A beach which is armoured with pebbles or small to medium sized cobbles. |
| lake sediment | |
| waterhole | A pond, often temporary or seasonal, used as a drinking place by mammals and birds. |
| gravel field | |
| intermittent water body | A water body that is not permanently filled with water, at times being dry. |
| range of seamounts | |
| endorheic basin | A drainage basin from which there is no outflow of water, either on the surface as rivers, or underground by flow or diffusion through rock or permeable material. |
| talik | An area of unfrozen ground surrounded by permafrost. |
| multipurpose dam | A dam constructed for more than one purpose. |
| saddle dam | An auxiliary dam constructed to confine the reservoir created by a primary dam either to permit a higher water elevation and storage or tonlimit the extent of a reservoir for increased efficiency. |
| check dam | A dam designed to reduce flow velocity and control soil erosion. |
| wing dam | A dam that only partly restricts a waterway, creating a faster channelnthat resists the accumulation of sediment. |
| dry dam | A dam designed to control flooding. It normally holds back no waternand allows the channel to flow freely, except during periods of intensenflow that would otherwise cause flooding downstream. |
| diversionary dam | A dam designed to divert all or a portion of the flow of a river from its natural course. |
| weapons test site | A region at which weapons, typically military, are tested. |
| nuclear weapons test site | A weapons test site at which nuclear weapons are, or have been,ntested. |
| military training area | A region in which military personnel train. |
| park | A bounded area of land, or water, usually in its natural ornsemi-natural (landscaped) state and set aside for some purpose, usually tondo with recreation or conservation. |
| pier | A raised walkway over water, supported by piles or pillars. |
| archeological site | A place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of pastnactivity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), andnwhich is, has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline ofnarchaeology. |
| sports facility | A building or region where sports activities can be carried out. |
| winter sports facility | A sports facility constructed fornskiing and allied sports that require snow and/or ice. |
| calanque | A deep valley with steep sides, typically of limestone, in partnsubmerged by the sea. |
| aerial habitat | A habitat that is solely in the air. |
| marine habitat | A habitat that is in or on a sea or ocean containing high concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (typically >35 grams dissolved salts per litre). |
| brackish water habitat | A habitat that is in or on a body of water (as in estuaries) containing medium concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (typically 0.5 to 35 grams dissolved salts per litre). |
| arboreal habitat | A habitat in or on trees. |
| subterrestrial habitat | A habitat that is below the surface of the earth. |
| city | Incorporated populated place. |
| freshwater biome | A biome that applies to the freshwater realm. |
| Tundra biome | |
| Temperate coniferous forest biome | |
| Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest biome | |
| Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrubland biome | |
| Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub biome | |
| Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest biome | |
| Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest biome | |
| Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrubland biome | |
| Montane grasslands and shrubland biome | |
| Deserts and xeric shrubland biome | |
| Mangrove biome | |
| Flooded grasslands and savanna biome | |
| endolithic habitat | A biome consisting of the spaces within rocks, such as pores between aggregate grains. Inhabited by endolithic organisms. |
| Large river biome | |
| Large river headwater biome | |
| Large river delta biome | |
| Small river biome | |
| Large lake biome | |
| Small lake biome | |
| Xeric basin biome | |
| Polar biome | |
| Temperate shelf and sea biome | |
| Temperate upwelling biome | |
| Tropical upwelling biome | |
| Tropical coral biome | |
| rock | A mass of the mineral material of the crust of the Earth. |
| mine drainage | The outflow of water from a mine. |
| acid mine drainage | A mine drainage with an acidic pH. |
| soil | Any material within 2 m from the Earth's surface that is in contact with the atmosphere, with the exclusion of living organisms, areas with continuous ice not covered by other material, and water bodies deeper than 2 m. |
| marine water body | |
| slope | The part of an elevation or depression between the relatively flat surrounding area and the peak of a mount or the bottom of a depression. |
| waste water | Water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. |
| food | A substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure. |
| feces | Feces is an excreta consisting of waste products expelled from an animal's digestive tract through the anus (or cloaca) during defecation. |
| mesoscopic physical object | An environmental feature that is, or can be, contained and is predominantly composed of one or a few types of stuff. |
| air | The mixture of gases (roughly (by molar content/volume: 78% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.038% carbon dioxide, trace amounts of other gases, and a variable amount (average around 1%) of water vapor) that surrounds the planet Earth. |
| water | The liquid form of dihydrogen monoxide. |
| sediment | Sediment is an environmental substance comprised of any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particlesnon the bedor bottom of a body of water or other liquid. |
| dust | Minute solid particles with diameters less than 500 micrometers. Occurs in and may be deposited from, the atmosphere. |
| terrestrial habitat | A habitat that is on or at the boundary of the surface of the Earth. |
| saline water | |
| fresh water | |
| hypersaline water | |
| igneous rock | Rock formed from molten magma. |
| plutonic rock | An igneous rock that results from the crystallization of a magma below the surface of the Earth. |
| volcanic rock | An igneous rock that results from magma reaching the surface either as lava or fragmental ejecta. |
| sedimentary rock | A rock formed by deposition of either clastic sediments, organic matter, or chemical precipitates (evaporites), followed by compaction of the particulate matter and cementation during diagenesis. |
| metamorphic rock | A rock formed by subjecting any rock type (including previously-formed metamorphic rock) to different temperature and pressure conditions than those in which the original rock was formed. These temperatures and pressures are always higher than those at the Earth's surface and must be sufficiently high so as to change the original minerals into other mineral types or else into other forms of the same minerals (e.g. by recrystallisation). |
| sewage | Wastewater that is contaminated with feces or urine, |
| brackish water | |
| extreme habitat | A habitat having at least one environmental quality that tends towards either the largest or smallest element of the set. The physical or geochemical extreme conditions found in an extreme habitat are often detrimental to the majority of life on Earth. |
| acid habitat | A biome in which the pH is <pH3. Inhabited by acidophilic organisms. |
| alkaline habitat | A biome in which the pH is >pH9. Inhabited by alkaliphilic organisms. |
| high pressure habitat | A biome characterized by high gas or liquid pressure, inhabited by barophilic (piezophilic) organisms. |
| haline habitat | A biome characterized by a concentration of salt at least 2M. Inhabited by halophilic organisms. |
| high temperature habitat | A biome characterized by an average temperature of at least 60deg C. Inhabited by thermophilic organisms. |
| cold temperature habitat | A biome characterized by an average temperature of 15deg C or lower. Inhabited by psychrophilic (cryophilic) organisms. |
| extreme high temperature habitat | A biome characterized by an average temperature of at least 80deg C. Inhabited by hyperthermophilic organisms. |
| high osmolarity habitat | A biome characterized by a high osmolarity, typically the result of a high concentration of sugars. Inhabited by osmophilic organisms. |
| extraterrestial habitat | |
| aquatic biome | |
| anthropogenic habitat | A habitat that is in or on an environmental feature or material derived from human activity. |
| organism-associated habitat | A habitat that is in or on a living thing. |
| carcass | The dead body of an animal. |
| biofilm | A complex aggregation of microorganisms marked by the excretion of a protective and adhesive matrix; usually adhering to a substratum. |
| meteorite | A natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed. |
| habitat | A spatial region having environmental qualities which may sustain an organism or a community of organisms. |
| freshwater habitat | A habitat that is in or on a body of water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (<0.5 grams dissolved salts per litre). |
| WWF biome | |
| bone | The rigid organs that form part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. |
| wood | |
| ground water | |
| surface water | |
| wastewater treatment plant | |
| sludge | The residual semi-solid material left from domestic or industrial processes, or wastewater treatment processes. |
| anaerobic sediment | |
| activated sludge | |
| urine | Urine is a liquid excreta containing water and waste products made by the kidneys, stored in the bladder, and leaves the body through the urethra. |
| chondrite | A stony meteorite that have not been modified due to melting or differentiation of the parent body. |
| stony meteorite | |
| achondrite | A stony meteorite that is made of material similar to terrestrial basalts or plutonic rocks. |
| stony-iron meteorite | A meteorite that consists of a mixture of iron-nickel metal and silicate minerals. |
| iron meteorite | A meteorite that overwhelmingly of nickel-iron alloys. |
| limestone | A sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite. |
| chalk | A soft, white, porous limestone. |
| sandstone | A sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock grains. |
| shale | A fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. It is characterized by thin laminae breaking with an irregular curving fracture, often splintery and usually parallel to the often-indistinguishable bedding plane. |
| raw primary sludge | |
| secondary sludge | |
| biosolids | A treated form of sludge, sometimes used as a fertilizer in agriculture. |
| oil sludge | A solid or gel in motor oil caused by the oil gelling or solidifying, usually at temperatures lower than 100deg C. |
| oil spill | The result of the unintentional release of liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment as a result of human activity. |
| oil seep | The result of the release of natural hydrocarbons to the surface of the earth, including beneath the sea, by natural geological processes. |
| gold mine drainage | |
| marine sediment | Marine sediment is a sediment that accumulates in the flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. The three main types of marine sediment, also known as pelagic sediment, are siliceous oozes, calcareous oozes, and red clays. |
| contaminated sediment | |
| petroleum contaminated sediment | |
| contaminated soil | |
| creosote contaminated soil | |
| sea sand | |
| alkaline hot spring | A hot spring whose water has an alkaline pH. |
| acid hot spring | A hot spring whose water has an acidic pH. |
| alkaline salt lake | |
| arsenic-rich mud | |
| bioreactor | |
| anaerobic bioreactor | |
| anaerobic dechlorinating bioreactor | A device or system that supports a biologically active environment. A vessel in which is carried out a chemical process which involves organisms or biochemically active substances derived from such organisms. This process can either be aerobic or anaerobic. |
| aerobic bioreactor | |
| stream sediment | |
| mesophilic sulfur spring | |
| anaerobic sludge | |
| hypolimnion | The dense, bottom layer of water in a thermally-stratified lake. It is the layer that lies below the thermocline. |
| epilimnion | The top-most layer in a thermally stratified lake, occurring above the deeper hypolimnion. It is warmer and typically has a higher pH and dissolved oxygen concentration than the hypolimnion. |
| metalimnion | The layer within a body of water or air where the temperature changes rapidly with depth. |
| anaerobic mud | |
| anaerobic stream sediment | |
| treated wood | |
| arsenate treated wood | |
| brackish estuary | |
| beach sand | |
| pebble | A clastic rock with a particle size of 4 to 64 millimeters based on the Krumbein phi scale of sedimentology. |
| cobble | A rock or rock fragment with a particle size between 64 and 256 mm. |
| leachate | The liquid produced when water percolates through any permeable material. It can contain either dissolved or suspended material, or usually both. |
| borax leachate | |
| calcite hot spring | |
| cave wall | |
| chromate contaminated soil | |
| xylene contaminated soil | |
| coal mine lake sediment | |
| coarse beach sand | |
| sea water | |
| coastal water | |
| ocean water | |
| biofilter | |
| compost biofilter | |
| radioactive sediment | |
| high-level radioactive sediment | |
| Superfund Site | A highly contaminated site designated by the United States of America's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. |
| stromatolite mat | |
| ditch water | |
| drilling bore water | |
| estuarine mud | |
| fermenting agave juice | |
| fermenting sugar cane juice | |
| fermenting Elaeis Palm sap | |
| fossil | The mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, and other organisms. |
| meat | |
| sausage | |
| platinum mine | |
| gold mine | |
| coal mine | |
| compost | The aerobically decomposed remnants of organic materials. |
| hay compost | |
| liver paste | |
| hospital | |
| hot dog | |
| prepared meat | |
| contaminated sludge | |
| 1,4-dioxane contaminated sludge | |
| iron-reducing zone of petroleum contaminated sediment | |
| intertidal sediment | |
| naphthalene contaminated sediment | |
| neutral hot spring | A hot spring whose water has a neutral pH. |
| nitrobenzene contaminated sediment | |
| oil tank | |
| underground physiographic feature | |
| oil reservoir | |
| contaminated water | |
| milk formula | |
| powdered milk formula | |
| cheese | |
| yogurt | A dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. |
| animal litter | Straw or other material strewn in an animal's enclosure (e.g. a stable) for it to sleep on and to absorb its faeces and urine. |
| poultry litter | |
| pulp-bleaching waste water | |
| oil field production water | |
| pyritic acid mine drainage | |
| aquarium | |
| saline water aquarium | |
| fresh water aquarium | |
| sandy beach | |
| sea ice | |
| cis-dichloroethane contaminated sediment | |
| organically contaminated sediment | |
| inorganically contaminated sediment | |
| contamination feature | |
| unexploded-ordnance dump | |
| coal mine waste | |
| self-heating coal mine waste | |
| cider | |
| saline lake sediment | |
| sulfide-oxidizing bioreactor | |
| thermophilic anaerobic methanogenic reactor | |
| thermophilic granular sludge | |
| anaerobic sludge blanket reactor | |
| power plant | |
| geothermal power plant | |
| vegetable | |
| cabbage | |
| commercial yogurt | |
| cheese starter culture | |
| cheese spoilage | |
| shop | |
| food shop | |
| oligotrophic water | Water with a very low nutrient level. |
| eutrophic water | Water with a high nutrient level. |
| mesotrophic water | Water with a nutrient level intermediate between eutrophic and oligotrophic. |
| borehole | |
| saline water habitat | A habitat that is in or on a body of water containing medium to high concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids (>=0.5 grams dissolved salts per litre). |
| pond water | |
| arenosol | Arenosols are sandy soils, including both soils developed in residual sands after in situ weathering of usually quartz-rich sediments or rock, and soils developed in recently deposited sands such as dunes in deserts and beach lands. |
| anthrosol | Anthrosols comprise soils that have been modified profoundly through human activities, such as addition of organic materials or household wastes, irrigation and cultivation. |
| alisol | Alisols are soils that have a higher clay content in the subsoil than in the topsoil as a result of pedogenetic processes (especially clay migration) leading to an argic subsoil horizon. Alisols have a low base saturation at certain depths and high-activity clays throughout the argic horizon. They lack the albeluvic tonguing as in Albeluvisols. They occur predominantly in humid tropical, humid subtropical and warm temperate regions. |
| andosol | Andosols are soils that develop in volcanic ejecta or glasses under almost any climate (except under hyperarid climate conditions). However, Andosols may also develop in other silicate-rich materials under acid weathering in humid and perhumid climates. |
| albeluvisol | Albeluvisols are soils that have, beginning within 1 m of the soil surface, a clay illuviation horizon with an irregular or broken upper boundary resulting in tonguing of bleached soil material into the illuviation horizon. |
| acrisol | Acrisols are soils that have a higher clay content in the subsoil than in the topsoil as a result of pedogenetic processes (especially clay migration) leading to an argic subsoil horizon. Acrisols have in certain depths a low base saturation and low-activity clays. |
| cambisol | Cambisols combine soils with at least an incipient subsurface soil formation. Transformation of parent material is evident from structure formation and mostly brownish discoloration, increasing clay percentage, and/or carbonate removal. |
| cryosol | Cryosols comprise mineral soils formed in a permafrost environment. Where water is present, it occurs primarily in the form of ice. Cryogenic processes are the dominant soil-forming processes. |
| chernozem | Chernozems are soils with a thick black surface layer that is rich in organic matter. |
| durisol | Durisols are associated mainly with old surfaces in arid and semi-arid environments and accommodate very shallow to moderately deep, moderately well- to well-drained soils that contain cemented secondary silica (SiO2) within 100 cm of the soil surface. |
| calcisol | Calcisols are soils in which there is substantial secondary accumulation of lime. Calcisols are common in highly calcareous parent materials and widespread in arid and semi-arid environments. |
| kastanozem | Kastanozems are dry grassland soils, among them the zonal soils of the short-grass steppe belt, south of the Eurasian tall-grass steppe belt with Chernozems. Kastanozems have a similar profile to that of Chernozems but the humus-rich surface horizon is thinner and not as dark as that of the Chernozems and they show more prominent accumulation of secondary carbonates. |
| leptosol | Leptosols are very shallow soils over continuous rock and soils that are extremely gravelly and/or stony. Leptosols are azonal soils and particularly common in mountainous regions. |
| lixisol | Lixisols are soils that have a higher clay content in the subsoil than in the topsoil as a result of pedogenetic processes (especially clay migration) leading to an argic subsoil horizon. Lixisols have a high base saturation and low-activity clays at certain depths. |
| histosol | Histosols comprise soils formed in organic material. These vary from soils developed in predominantly moss peat in boreal, arctic and subarctic regions, via moss peat, reeds/ sedge peat (fen) and forest peat in temperate regions to mangrove peat and swamp forest peat in the humid tropics. Histosols are found at all altitudes, but the vast majority occurs in lowlands. |
| gleysol | Gleysols are wetland soils that, unless drained, are saturated with groundwater for long enough periods to develop a characteristic gleyic colour pattern. This pattern is essentially made up of reddish, brownish or yellowish colours at ped surfaces and/or in the upper soil layer or layers, in combination with greyish/bluish colours inside the peds and/or deeper in the soil. |
| gypsisol | Gypsisols are soils with substantial secondary accumulation of gypsum (calcium sulfate). These soils are found in the driest parts of the arid climate zone. |
| ferralsol | Ferralsols represent the classical, deeply weathered, red or yellow soils of the humid tropics. These soils have diffuse horizon boundaries, a clay assemblage dominated by low-activity clays (mainly kaolinite) and a high content of sesquioxides. |
| nitisol | Nitisols are deep, well-drained, red, tropical soils with diffuse horizon boundaries and a subsurface horizon with more than 30 percent clay and moderate to strong angular blocky structure elements that easily fall apart into characteristic shiny, polyhedric (nutty) elements. Weathering is relatively advanced but Nitisols are far more productive than most other red, tropical soils. |
| luvisol | Luvisols are soils that have a higher clay content in the subsoil than in the topsoil as a result of pedogenetic processes (especially clay migration) leading to an argic subsoil horizon. Luvisols have high-activity clays throughout the argic horizon and a high base saturation at certain depths. |
| phaeozem | Phaeozems accommodate soils of relatively wet grassland and forest regions in moderately continental climates. Phaeozems are much like Chernozems and Kastanozems but are leached more intensively. Consequently, they have dark, humus rich surface horizons that, in comparison with Chernozems and Kastanozems, are less rich in bases. Phaeozems may or may not have secondary carbonates but have a high base saturation in the upper metre of the soil. |
| plinthosol | Plinthosols are soils with plinthite, petroplinthite or pisoliths. Plinthite is an Fe-rich (in some cases also Mn-rich), humus-poor mixture of kaolinitic clay (and other products of strong weathering such as gibbsite) with quartz and other constituents that changes irreversibly to a layer with hard nodules, a hardpan or irregular aggregates on exposure to repeated wetting and drying. Petroplinthite is a continuous, fractured or broken sheet of connected, strongly cemented to indurated nodules or mottles. Pisoliths are discrete strongly cemented to indurated nodules. Both petroplinthite and pisoliths develop from plinthite by hardening. |
| planosol | Planosols are soils with a light-coloured, surface horizon that shows signs of periodic water stagnation and abruptly overlies a dense, slowly permeable subsoil with significantly more clay than the surface horizon. |
| solonchak | Solonchaks are soils that have a high concentration of soluble salts at some time in the year. Solonchaks are largely confined to the arid and semi-arid climate zones and to coastal regions in all climates. |
| umbrisol | Umbrisols are soils in which organic matter has accumulated within the mineral surface soil (in most cases with low base saturation) to the extent that it significantly affects the behaviour and utilization of the soil. |
| vertisol | A soil in which there is a high content of expansive clay known as montmorillonite that forms deep cracks in drier seasons or years. Alternate shrinking and swelling causes self-mulching, where the soil material consistently mixes itself, causing vertisols to have an extremely deep A horizon and no B horizon. |
| solonetz | Solonetz are soils with a dense, strongly structured, clayey subsurface horizon that has a high proportion of adsorbed Na and/or Mg ions. Solonetz that contain free soda (Na2CO3) are strongly alkaline (field pH > 8.5). |
| regosol | Regosols form a taxonomic remnant group containing all soils that could not be accommodated in any of the other RSGs. In practice, Regosols are very weakly developed mineral soils in unconsolidated materials that do not have a mollic or umbric horizon, are not very shallow or very rich in gravels (Leptosols), sandy (Arenosols) or with fluvic materials (Fluvisols). Regosols are extensive in eroding lands, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas and in mountainous terrain. |
| podzol | Podzols are soils with a typically ash-grey upper subsurface horizon, bleached by loss of organic matter and iron oxides, on top of a dark accumulation horizon with brown, reddish or black illuviated humus and/or reddish Fe compounds. Podzols occur in humid areas in the boreal and temperate zones and locally also in the tropics. |
| loam | A soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration (about 40-40-20% concentration respectively). |
| agricultural soil | |
| dune soil | |
| forest soil | |
| clay soil | |
| garden soil | |
| waste | |
| agricultural waste | |
| chicken breeding waste | |
| industrial waste | |
| sphagnum bog | A peatland dominated by species of the Bryophyte Sphagnum. |
| thermocline | A layer within a water body where the temperature changes rapidly with depth. |
| chemocline | A layer within a water body where the chemical composition changes rapidly with depth. |
| nuclear power plant | |
| waste treatment plant | |
| fluvisol | Fluvisols accommodate genetically young, azonal soils in alluvial deposits. |
| stagnosol | Stagnosols are soils with a perched water table showing redoximorphic features caused by surface water. Stagnosols are periodically wet and mottled in the topsoil and subsoil, with or without concretions and/or bleaching. |
| technosol | Technosols are soils whose properties and pedogenesis are dominated by their technical origin. They contain a significant amount of artefacts (something in the soil recognizably made or extracted from the earth by humans), or are sealed by technic hard rock (material created by humans, having properties unlike natural rock). They include soils from wastes (landfills, sludge, cinders, mine spoils and ashes), pavements with their underlying unconsolidated materials, soils with geomembranes and constructed soils in human-made materials. |
| animal waste | |
| back-arc basin | A depression in the sea floor that results from the collision of continental plates; the weight of the sinking plate causes the overlying plate to stretch and thin, causing a basin in the overlying plate. Sometimes, the Earth's crust in these basins stretches so much it cracks, allowing magma through from the mantle beneath. Hence, basins often contain active volcanoes and hydrothermal vents. |
| environmental feature | A feature that is. |
| ocean basin | |
| hay | |
| abode soil | |
| alluvial soil | |
| bagasse | The biomass remaining after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice. |
| organic waste | |
| air conditioning unit | |
| oil contaminated soil | |
| warm seep | |
| clay | A group of hydrous aluminium phyllosilicate (phyllosilicates being a subgroup of silicate minerals) minerals (see clay minerals), that are typically less than 2micrometres in diameter. Clay consists of a variety of phyllosilicate minerals rich in silicon and aluminium oxides and hydroxides which include variable amounts of structural water. |
| fuel oil | |
| petroleum | |
| oil | A viscous liquid state at ambient temperatures or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic. |
| Udvardy biome | |
| Evergreen sclerophyllous forests, scrub, or woodlands | |
| Temperate grasslands | |
| Temperate broad-leaf forests or woodlands and subpolar deciduous thickets | |
| Tropical dry or deciduous forests (including Monsoon forests) or woodlands | |
| Subtropical and temperate rainforests or woodlands | |
| Temperate needle-leaf forests or woodlands | |
| Tropical humid forests | |
| Mixed island systems | |
| Tundra communities and barren Arctic deserts | |
| Mixed mountain and highland systems with complex zonation | |
| Cold-winter (continental) deserts and semideserts | |
| Warm deserts and semideserts | |
| Bailey biome | |
| Polar Domain (100) | |
| Humid Temperate Domain (200) | |
| Dry Domain (300) | |
| Humid Tropical Domain (400) | |
| Tundra Divsion (120) | |
| Subarctic Division - Mountain Provinces (M130) | |
| Subarctic Division (130) | |
| Tundra Division - Mountain Provinces (M120) | |
| Hot Continental Division (220) | |
| Subtropical Division (230) | |
| Warm Continental Division (210) | |
| Warm Continental Division - Mountain Provinces (M210) | |
| Subtropical Division - Mountain Provinces (M230) | |
| Hot Continental Division - Mountain Provinces (M220) | |
| Marine Division (240) | |
| Marine Division - Mountain Provinces (M240) | |
| Prairie Division (250) | |
| Mediterranean Division (260) | |
| Mediterranean Division - Mountain Provinces (M260) | |
| Tropical/Subtropical Desert Division (320) | |
| Rainforest Division (420) | |
| Temperate Desert Division (340) | |
| Temperate Desert Division - Mountain Provinces (M340) | |
| Temperate Steppe Division (330) | |
| Temperate Steppe Division - Mountain Provinces (M330) | |
| Tropical/Subtropical Steppe Division - Mountain Provinces (M310) | |
| Tropical/Subtropical Steppe Division (310) | |
| Rainforest Division - Mountain Provinces (M420) | |
| Savanna Division (410) | |
| Savanna Division - Mountain Provinces (M410) | |
| silage | A fermented, high-moisture forage that can be fed to ruminants. |
| animal manure | |
| fresh animal manure | |
| mushroom compost | |
| wort | The liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer or whiskey. Wort contains the sugars that will be fermented by the brewing yeast to produce alcohol. |
| beer wort | |
| acifified beer wort | |
| animal house | |
| cow shed | |
| piggery | |
| sewage plant | |
| brine | Water saturated or nearly saturated with salt (NaCl). It is used (now less popular than historically) to preserve vegetables, fish, and meat. |
| bacon curing brine | |
| Bresse Blue | |
| butter | A food made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. |
| pickled cabbage | |
| Camembert | |
| cane sugar | |
| Cheddar | |
| Brie | |
| Gouda | |
| halloumi | |
| Gorgonzola | |
| Swiss | |
| Ementhal | |
| Harzerkaese | |
| New Zealand Cheddar | |
| Pont l'Eveque | |
| vacherin Mont d'Or | |
| pork | |
| cured meat | |
| drinking water | |
| distilled water | |
| chicken | |
| beef | |
| bovine milk | |
| ovine milk | |
| caprine milk | |
| grass silage | |
| ice cream | |
| seafood | |
| manufactured product | |
| anthropogenic abiotic mesoscopic feature | |
| glue | |
| jeotgal | A fermented salty fish of Korean cuisine. |
| Meshanger cheese | |
| pork chop | |
| salad | |
| metal contaminated soil | |
| enriched soil | |
| sarcosine enriched soil | |
| trimethylamine enriched soil | |
| skatole enriched soil | |
| ethanol enriched soil | |
| acetamide enriched soil | |
| pantothenate enriched soil | |
| testosterone enriched soil | |
| kynurenate enriched soil | |
| threonin enriched soil | |
| salicylate enriched soil | |
| poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate enriched soil | |
| L-(+)-tartrate enriched soil | |
| quinate enriched soil | |
| tap water | |
| bore hole water | |
| tannery | |
| tempeh | Tempeh/Tempe is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybean particles into a cake form. |
| horse manure | |
| pig manure | |
| industrial building | |
| dairy | |
| food processing factory | |
| bakery | |
| straw | An agricultural byproduct, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the nutrient grain or seed has been removed. |
| rice straw | |
| fermented rice | |
| amasake | |
| fermented dairy product | |
| fermented fish | |
| fish | |
| flour | A fine powder made from cereals or other starchy food sources. |
| fruit | |
| fruit extract | |
| apple juice | |
| awamori | |
| bacon | Any of certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, belly or back of a pig that may be cured and/or smoked. |
| fermented millet | |
| millet beer | |
| farmyard manure | |
| brewery | |
| bottled beer | |
| blue cheese | |
| bottled fruit | |
| buttermilk | The liquid left over after producing butter from cream during the churning process. |
| canned fruit | |
| fermented fruit | |
| fermented apple | |
| cosmetic product | |
| face cream product | |
| paper product | |
| currency note | |
| miso | A food produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the mold koji-kin (Aspergillus oryzae). |
| must | Must is the juice of freshly pressed grapes, that contains various quantities of pulp, skins, stems, and seeds, called pomace or grape solids, which typically comprise between 7 to 23 percent of the total weight of the must. |
| rye grass silage | |
| aviation fuel | |
| yeast cake | |
| vinegar | A liquid produced from the fermentation of ethanol in a process that yields its key ingredient, acetic acid. |
| malt vinegar | Vinegar is made by malting barley, causing the starch in the grain to turn to maltose. |
| nonfat dry milk | |
| poultry deep litter | |
| sake brewery | |
| sake | |
| salt pork | |
| chalk soil | |
| fermented soybean | |
| soy sauce | |
| research station | A building or collection of co-located buildings constructed fornthe purpose of undertaking scientific research. |
| stable manure | |
| pickle | A food preserved by soaking and storing it in vinegar or brine. |
| tape kefan | |
| scum | A layer of impurities that accumulates at the surface of a liquid (especially water or molten metal). |
| warehouse | |
| tobacco warehouse | |
| anaerobic digester sludge | |
| Bondon cheese | |
| creamery | |
| air filter | |
| bitter cheese | |
| sugar | |
| brown sugar | |
| evaporated milk | |
| kefir | |
| vegetable oil | |
| linseed oil | |
| maize flour | |
| potato silage | |
| sour milk | |
| dried milk | |
| travertine | A natural chemical precipitate of carbonate minerals; typically aragonite, but often recrystallized to or primarily calcite; which is deposited from the water of mineral springs (especially hot springs) or streams saturated with calcium carbonate. |
| sawmill | |
| karst field | A large flat plain in karst territory with areas usually 5 to 400 km2. |
| foam | |
| sea foam | |
| paddy field soil | |
| alpine soil | |
| arable soil | |
| roadside soil | |
| allotment garden soil | |
| allotment garden | |
| savanna soil | |
| compost soil | |
| dry soil | |
| farm soil | |
| grassland soil | |
| jungle soil | |
| sawah soil | |
| urea enriched soil | |
| fertilized soil | |
| field soil | |
| lawn soil | |
| bacteria enriched soil | |
| alluvial swamp soil | |
| alluvial paddy field soil | |
| burned soil | |
| meadow soil | |
| chloropicrine-enriched soil | |
| humus-rich acidic ash soil | |
| pond soil | |
| frozen compost soil | |
| limed soil | |
| manured soil | |
| orchid soil | |
| mountain forest soil | |
| beech forest soil | |
| muddy soil | |
| orchard soil | |
| pasture soil | |
| peat soil | |
| salt contaminated soil | |
| peaty paddy field soil | |
| steppe soil | |
| tropical soil | |
| vegetable garden soil | |
| greenhouse soil | |
| heat stressed soil | |
| ornithogenic soil | |
| leafy wood soil | |
| spruce forest soil | |
| volcanic soil | |
| upland soil | |
| eucalyptus forest soil | |
| rubber plantation soil | |
| blue-grass field soil | |
| red soil | |
| sterile water | |
| underground water | |
| muddy water | |
| water scum | |
| marine mud | |
| marine sludge | |
| lake bottom mud | |
| acid dune sand | |
| rocky sand | |
| desert sand | |
| rhizosphere | The narrow region of soil that is directly influenced by root secretions and associated soil microorganisms. |
| bulk soil | Soil that is not penetrated by the root systems of plants. |
| animal habitation | The dwelling of an animal or group of similar animals. |
| nest of ant | |
| nest of bird | |
| Tropical and subtropical coniferous forest biome | |
| animal-associated habitat | |
| plant-associated habitat | |
| mammalia-associated habitat | |
| human-associated habitat | |
| insecta-associated habitat | |
| ice rise | Mass of ice, often dome shaped, resting on rock and surrounded either by an ice shelf, or partly by an ice shelf and partly by sea; no rock is exposed and there may be none above sea-level. For some features, properly ice rises, the term island has become established through usage. |
| ice piedmont | A glacier covering a coastal strip of low-lying land backed by mountains, and sloping gently seaward over a distance up to 30km or more to terminate in ice cliffs or to merge with an ice shelf. |
| strand crack | Fissure at the junction between an inland ice sheet, ice piedmont or ice rise and an ice shelf, the latter being subject to the rise and fall of the tide. |
| fomite | A fomite is any inanimate object or substance capable of carrying infectious organisms (such as germs or parasites) and hence transferring them from one individual to another. A fomite can be anything such as a cloth or mop heads so when cleaning this is important to remember that this could aid when spreading pathogenic organisms. |
| midden | A dump for domestic waste. A term used to describe any kind of feature containing waste products relating to day-to-day human life. |
| environmental matter | Matter in or on which organisms may live. |
| surface | |
| aerosol | Airborne solid particles (also called dust or particulate matter (PM)) or liquid droplets. |
| emulsion | A mixture of two immiscible (unblendable) substances. One substance (the dispersed phase) is dispersed in the other (the continuous phase). |
| medical instrument | |
| vivarium | |
| dolomite | A sedimentary carbonate rock and a mineral, both composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg(CO3)2 found in crystals. |
| botanical garden | A place where a wide variety of plants primarily categorized and documented for scientific purposes. |
| zoological garden | A facility in which animals are confined within enclosures and displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred. |
| ocean time series station | A research facility consisting of instruments that measure thenproperties of the oceans over time. Usually of at least approximately fixednlocation. |
| aquifer | An underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, silt, or clay) from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. |
| karst cave | |
| humus | Organic matter in soil which has reached a point of stability, where it will break down no further and might, if conditions do not change, remain essentially as it is for centuries, or millennia. |
| mud | A liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay. |
| water well | |
| oil well | |
| upwelling | An oceanographic feature that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-deplete surface water. |
| coastal upwelling | |
| microbial feature | |
| microbial mat | |
| biotic mesoscopic physical object | |
| abiotic mesoscopic physical object | |
| dairy product | Food made from milk. |
| milk | Milk is an opague white dairy product produced by the mammary glands of female mammals. |
| fermented food | |
| wine | |
| beer | |
| silt | |
| sand | |
| gravel | Rock whose pieces are at least two millimeters (2mm) in its largest dimension (about 1/12 of an inch) and no more than 75 millimeters (about 3 inches). |
| cave floor | |
| hypodermic needle | A hypodermic needle is a medical instrument made from a hollow needle. It is commonly used with a syringe to inject substances into the body of an organism. |
| textile | A textile is a manufactured product comprised of a network of natural or artificial fibers (often referred to as thread or yarn). |
| bedclothing | Bedclothing is a textile covering used on a bed as a sheet, blanket, or pillowcase. |
| pockmark field | A pockmark field is an undersea feature formed by shallow seabed depressions, typically several tens of metres across and a few metres deep. Generally, they are formed in soft, fine-grained seabed sediments by the escape of fluids (gas or water, but mainly methane) into the water column. |
| nesting material | Nesting material is an animal habitation consisting of matierals used to cushion, insulate and protect the young of the organism. The adult will use the material to form a protective structure to house and raise their young. Nests are built primarily by birds, but also by mammals, fish, insects and reptiles. |
| livestock | Livestock is an animal-associated habitat consisting of any domestic or domesticated animal intentionally raised for food or in the production of food or raised as stock to produce food or fibre, in an agricultural setting or for its labour or pen-raised animals raised on licensed game farm operations. Livestock include: bovine animals (including buffalo and bison), ovine animals, porcine animals, caprine animals, , poultry, bees, equine animals, cervidae animals; animals of the genus Lama; ratites (Emu, Ostrich, and Rhea), fish or shellfish in aquaculture facilities, and enclosed domesticated rabbits or hares raised for human food or fiber. |
| cultured habitat | Cultured habitat is an controlled habitat created by humans through laboratory techniques usually for the purposes of preparing cell, organ, tissue and plant tissue cultures. |
| tissue culture | Tissue culture is the culture of cells, tissues or organs in a nutrient medium under sterile conditions. |
| cell culture | Cell culture is a growth of cells in vitro in an artificial medium for experimental research. |
| plant tissue culture | Plant tissue culture is the growth or maintenance of plant cells, tissues, organs or whole plants in vitro. |
| organ culture | Organ culture is the aseptic culture of complete living organs of animals and plants outside the body in a suitable culture medium. Animal organs must be small enough to allow the nutrients in the culture medium to penetrate all the cells. |
| buffalo milk | |
| camel milk | |
| donkey milk | |
| horse milk | |
| reindeer milk | |
| water buffalo milk | |
| yak milk | |
| zebra milk | |
| bodily fluid | A natural bodily fluid or secretion such as blood, semen, saliva, blood plasma, intracellular and interstitial fluids. |
| blood | Blood is a bodily fluid composed of blood plasma and blood cells suspended within the plasma that circulates around the organism's body. Blood performs may important functions including the supplying of oxygen and nutrients, removal of waste, circulation of white blood cells, detection of antibodes, coagulation, transportation of antibodies and the regulation of pH and body temperature. |
| amniotic fluid | Amniotic fluid is a bodily fluid consisting of watery liquid surrounding and cushioning a growing fetus within the amnion. It allows the fetus to move freely without the walls of the uterus being too tight against its body. Buoyancy is also provided. |
| excreta | Excreta are bodily fluids consisting of waste matter, such as sweat or feces, discharged from the body. |
| bile | Bile is a bodily fluid consisting of a bitter, yellow or green alkaline fluid secreted by hepatocytes from the liver of most vertebrates. In many species, bile is stored in the gallbladder between meals and upon eating is discharged into the duodenum where the bile aids the process of digestion of lipids. |
| aqueous humour | Aqueous humour is a bodily fluid consisting of a thick watery substance that fills the space between the lens and the cornea. |
| sweat | Sweat is an excreta consisting primarily of water as well as a smaller amount of sodium chloride that is excreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. |
| chyme | Chyme is a bodily fluid consisting of a liquid substance found in the stomach before passing through the pyloric valve and entering the duodenum. It results from the mechanical and chemical breakdown of a bolus and consists of partially digested food, water, hydrochloric acid, and various digestive enzymes. |
| blood plasma | Blood plasma is a bodily fluid that comprises the liquid component of blood, in which the blood cells are suspended. It makes up about 55% of total blood volume. |
| ear wax | Ear was is a bodily fluid consisting of a yellowish, waxy substance secreted in the ear canal of humans and many other mammals. It plays an important role in the human ear canal, assisting in cleaning and lubrication, and also provides some protection from bacteria, fungi, and insects. |
| cerebrospinal fluid | Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear bodily fluid that occupies the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain. CSF is a clear bodily fluid that occupies the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain. |
| chyle | Chyle is a bodily fluid consisting of a milky fluid consisting of lymph and emulsified fats; formed in the small intestine during digestion of ingested fats. |
| breast milk | Breast milk is a bodily fluid produced that is secreted from two milk-secreting glandular organs on a female's chest. |
| vitreous humor | Vitreous humor is a bodily fluid consisting of a clear gel that fills the space between the lens and the retina of the eyeball of humans and other vertebrates. |
| pleural effusion | Pleural effusion is a bodily fluid that is produced in exess and accumulates in the pleural cavity, the fluid-filled space that surrounds the lungs. Excessive amounts of such fluid can impair breathing by limiting the expansion of the lungs during inhalation. |
| tears | Tears is a bodily fluid consisting of a drop of the clear salty liquid secreted by glands (lacrimal glands) in the eyes. Tears wet the membrane covering the eye and help rid the eye of irritating substances. |
| oronasal secretion | Oronasal secretion is a bodily fluid secreted from the body via the mouth or nose. |
| saliva | Saliva is a slightly alkaline secretion of water, mucin, protein, salts, and often a starch-splitting enzyme (as ptyalin) that is secreted into the mouth by salivary glands, lubricates ingested food, and often begins the breakdown of starches. |
| sebum | Sebum is an oily bodily fluid secreted from the sebaceous glads that is made of fat (lipids) and the debris of dead fat-producing cells. In the glands, sebum is produced within specialized cells and is released as these cells burst. Sebum acts to protect and waterproof hair and skin, and keep them from becoming dry, brittle and cracked. It can also inhibit the growth of microorganisms on skin. |
| pus | Pus is a bodily fluid consisting of a whitish-yellow or yellow substance produced during inflammatory responses of the body that can be found in regions of pyogenic bacterial infections. Pus is produced from the dead and living cells which travel into the intercellular spaces around the affected cells. |
| synovial fluid | Synovial fluid is a bodily fluid secreted by the synovial membrane into the joint cavity to form a thin layer at the surface of cartilage. |
| mucus | Mucus is a bodily fluid consisting of a slippery secretion of the lining of the mucous membranes in the body. It is a viscous colloid containing antiseptic enzymes (such as lysozyme) and immunoglobulins. Mucus is produced by goblet cells in the mucous membranes that cover the surfaces of the membranes. It is made up of mucins and inorganic salts suspended in water. |
| lymph | Lymph is a bodily fluid consisting of a usually clear coagulable fluid that passes from intercellular spaces of body tissue into the lymphatic vessels, is discharged into the blood by way of the thoracic duct and right lymphatic duct, and resembles blood plasma in containing white blood cells and especially lymphocytes but normally few red blood cells and no platelets. |
| interstitial fluid | Interstitial fluid is a bodily fluid consisting of a solution which bathes and surrounds the cells of multicellular animals. It is the main component of the extracellular fluid, which also includes plasma and transcellular fluid. |
| biological product | A biological product is an environmental substrate comprised of any virus, therapeutic serum, toxin, antitoxin, or analogous product available to prevent, treat or cure diseases or injuries in man. |
| siliceous ooze | Siliceous ooze is a marine sediment composed of the debris of plankton with silica shells, such as diatoms and radiolaria. This ooze is limited to areas with high biological productivity, such as the polar oceans, and upwelling zones near the equator. The least common type of sediment, itncovers only 15% of the ocean floor. It accumulates at a slower rate than calcareous ooze: 0.2-1 cm / 1000 yr. |
| red clay | |
| calcareous ooze | Calcareous ooze is a marine sediment composed primarily of the shells--also known as tests--of foraminifera, coccolithophores, and pteropods. This isnthe most common pelagic sediment by area, covering 48% of the world ocean's floor. This type of ooze is limited to depths above the Carbonate Compensation Depth at time of burial. It accumulates more rapidly than any other pelagic sediment type, with a rate that varies from 0.3 - 5 cm / 1000 yr. |
| animal feed | Animal feed is a biotic mesoscopic physical object consisting of any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is ofnanimal origin. Fodder refers particularly to food given to the animalsn(including plants cut and carried to them), rather than that which theynforage for themselves. It includes hay, straw, silage, compressed andnpelleted feeds, oils and mixed rations, and also sprouted grains andnlegumes. |
| contaminated animal feed | Contaminated animal feed is an animal feed that has become contaminatednwith or come contact with microorganisms or toxic chemicals. |
| coastal water body | Coastal water is a marine water body bordering a coast. |
| spinach | A vegetable with dark green, spear-shaped leaves that can be curled or smooth and are attached to thin stems. |
| unpasteurized milk | Raw milk which has not undergone the pasteurization process. |
| umbrella | A canopy designed to protect against precipitation or sunlight. |
| hide | A skin obtained from animals for human use typically from deer or cattle sources used to produce leather, shoes, fashion accessories, musical instruments. |
| bone meal | A mixture of crushed and coarsely ground bones that is used as an organic fertilizer for plants and formerly in animal feed. |
| plant feed | Plant feed is a biotic mesoscopic physical object consisting of any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed plants. |
| egg | A food consisting of a round or oval body laid by the female of many animals, consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves. |
| chicken egg | An egg produced by a female chicken. |
| cloth | A textile comprised of a pliable material made usually by weaving, felting, or knitting natural or synthetic fibers and filaments. |
| surface soil | A soil consisting of the upper layer of soil on the surface consisting of loose material capable of supporting life composed of a mixture of mineral and organic matter. |
| apple cider | |
| unpasteurized orange juice | |
| dessert | |
| cake | |
| cake icing | |
| chocolate | |
| custard | |
| ground beef | |
| poultry | A category of domestic birds kept for meat, eggs, and feathers including fowl such as chickens, turkeys, and waterfowls such as domestic ducks and geese and other meat birds such as pigeons and doves and games birds including pheasants. |
| duck | |
| goose | |
| turkey | |
| mushroom | |
| bean plant | |
| cantaloupe | |
| peanut plant | |
| potato salad | |
| salad dressing | |
| clam | |
| oyster | |
| shellfish | |
| letter | A written message from one person to another addressed to a person or organization. |
| unpasteurized goat milk cheese | |
| Pecorino cheese | A family of hard Italian cheeses made from sheep milk. The word pecora, from which the name derives, means sheep. Most are aged and sharp. |
| goat manure | |
| unpasteurized sheep milk cheese | |
| unpasteruized cow milk cheese | |
| unpasteurized camel milk | |
| unpasteurized caprine milk | |
| unpasteurized ovine milk | |
| has_part | |
| located_in | |
| made_of | |
| part_of |