Geography Terms                                                    

Archipelago: a string or chain of islands

Bay: a small body of water partially surrounded by land

Butte: a visible hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top (Similar to but smaller than a plateau, mesa and table)

Canal: a man-made waterway for boats or for draining or irrigating land

Canyon: a deep valley or crevice in the earth’s surface, with very steep sides and usually with a river running through it Also known as gorges; ravines are similar, but not as deep

Cape: a point of land that extends into the sea or into a lake

The Nile Delta– northern Egypt Delta: a triangular, fertile area of land around the mouth of a large river The Nile Delta– northern Egypt

Fjord: a narrow, winding ocean inlet with steep cliff-like sides (carved out by a glacier)

Glacier: a huge sheet of snow or ice moving slowly down a slope (mountain) or valley

What’s the difference between a GLACIER and an ICEBERG? A glacier is a river of ice, mostly on land. It is fed by snowfields in the mountains and flows down a valley, like a very slow moving river, until it meets with the sea or a lake. An iceberg is a large piece of ice floating in water. It may have broken off a glacier.

Geyser: a spring from which boiling water and steam gushes into the air in intervals

Gulf: a large portion of the ocean, partially surrounded by land

Island: a body of land completely surrounded by water

Isthmus: a narrow strip of land connecting two larger pieces of land The Isthmus of Panama

Jungle: land densely covered with trees, vines, etc Jungle: land densely covered with trees, vines, etc. (typically found in the tropics)

Lagoon: a body of shallow sea or salt water that is separated from a larger sea by some barrier (sand, rock, reef, etc.)

Lake: a large inland body of standing water (usually freshwater) Lake Michigan Lake Winnipesaukee

Mesa: a tall, flat-topped mountain with steep, vertical sides (usually found in dry places) Buttes are small mesas

Ocean: a large body of salt water Pacific                             Atlantic

Peninsula: a long piece of land surrounded by water on three sides

Plain: a large, flat, and mostly treeless area of land The Great Plains

River: a natural stream of water larger than a brook or creek (typically flowing into an ocean or lake) Mississippi River Merrimack River

Sound: a wide channel linking two larger bodies of water or separating an island from the mainland

Swamp: wet, spongy land often partly covered with water

Tundra: a vast, treeless arctic plain

Volcano: an opening in the Earth’s surface that forms when lava, gases, and rocks erupt, or burst out, from deep inside the Earth Mt. Saint Helens