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Landforms
Mountains, ranges, deserts, volcanoes, plateaus, canyons, and islands.
122 entries
Aconcagua
The stone sentinel, highest peak in the Americas and the Southern Hemisphere
Alert, Nunavut
A Canadian military and weather station on Ellesmere Island, the northernmost permanently inhabited place on Earth
Alps
Europe's great arc of high peaks, glaciers, and Alpine valleys
Altiplano
The high plain of the central Andes, second only to Tibet
Anatolian Plateau
The high heartland of Asia Minor
Andes
The world's longest continental mountain range, the 7,000-km spine of South America
Aoraki / Mount Cook
New Zealand's highest peak, the cloud piercer of the Southern Alps
Apennine Mountains
The 1,200-km mountain spine running the length of Italy
Appalachian Mountains
Eastern North America's ancient, worn-down range
Arabian Desert
The vast sand sea of the Arabian Peninsula, home to the largest unbroken sands on Earth
Atacama Desert
The driest place on Earth, a high Chilean desert where some places have never seen rain
Atlas Mountains
The 2,500-km barrier between the Sahara and the Mediterranean
Bali
Indonesia's Island of the Gods, a Hindu enclave of temples and terraces
Borneo
The world's third-largest island, shared by three nations and ancient rainforest
Campi Flegrei
The restless caldera on the western edge of Naples, where the ground has risen more than 1.5 meters since 2005
Carpathian Mountains
The great sweeping arc of central and eastern Europe
Caucasus Mountains
The high range between the Black and Caspian seas, home to Europe's tallest peak
Challenger Deep
The deepest known point in Earth's oceans, at the southern end of the Mariana Trench
Chihuahuan Desert
The largest desert in North America, a high grassland-and-shrub basin straddling the Rio Grande
Chimborazo
Ecuador's highest mountain and the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's center
Colca Canyon
A Peruvian gorge twice the depth of the Grand Canyon, patrolled by condors
Colorado Plateau
The canyon country of the American Southwest
Cotopaxi
Ecuador's near-perfect glaciated cone, among the world's highest active volcanoes
Deccan Plateau
The great volcanic tableland of peninsular India
Denali
The high one, North America's tallest mountain in the Alaska Range
Drakensberg
Southern Africa's great basalt escarpment, the Dragon Mountains
Ethiopian Highlands
The rugged roof of Africa, the Horn's great mountain massif
Eyjafjallajokull
The Icelandic volcano whose 2010 ash cloud grounded Europe
Fish River Canyon
Africa's largest canyon, a vast ravine in Namibia's arid south
Galapagos Islands
The Pacific archipelago that inspired the theory of evolution
Gobi Desert
A cold rain-shadow desert of Mongolia and northern China, famed for its dinosaur fossils
Grand Canyon
The Colorado River's mile-deep masterpiece carved through northern Arizona
Great Britain
Europe's largest island, cradle of an empire and the industrial age
Great Dividing Range
Australia's 3,500-km eastern cordillera
Great Victoria Desert
Australia's largest desert, a sweep of red sand and spinifex in the continent's heart
Greenland
The world's largest island, a vast ice-sheet realm in the Arctic
Guiana Highlands
The land of tepuis, the table mountains of northern South America
Hawaiian Islands
A volcanic chain in the central Pacific, the most isolated archipelago on Earth
Himalayas
The planet's highest mountain system, a 2,400-km wall between the subcontinent and Tibet
Hindu Kush
The rugged 800-km range dividing Central from South Asia
Honshu
Japan's main island, heartland of a nation and home to Tokyo
Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai
The submarine Tongan volcano whose January 2022 eruption sent the highest plume ever recorded into the mesosphere
Java
The world's most populous island, the crowded core of Indonesia
K2
The savage mountain, Earth's second-highest peak in the Karakoram
Kalahari Desert
A semi-arid sand basin of southern Africa, more savanna than empty waste
Kangchenjunga
The five treasures of the snows, third-highest mountain on Earth
Karakoram
The most glaciated range outside the poles, home to K2
Kilauea
Hawaii's shield volcano, among the most active on Earth
Krakatoa
The Indonesian volcano whose 1883 eruption was heard across the world
La Rinconada
A gold-mining town in the Peruvian Andes, the highest permanent settlement on Earth
Lake Toba
The largest volcanic lake on Earth, filling the caldera of the biggest eruption of the past two million years
Matterhorn
The iconic horn of the Pennine Alps on the Swiss-Italian border
Mauna Kea
Hawaii's sacred shield volcano, the tallest mountain measured from base
Mauna Loa
The largest active volcano on Earth, which ended 38 quiet years with a 12-day eruption in 2022
Mawsynram
A village in India's Khasi Hills credited with the highest average annual rainfall on Earth
Mojave Desert
A high North American desert of Joshua trees and the searing floor of Death Valley
Mont Blanc
The white mountain, highest summit of the Alps
Mount Ararat
Turkey's highest peak, the snow-crowned volcano of biblical fame
Mount Elbrus
Europe's highest summit, a dormant volcano in the Caucasus
Mount Etna
Europe's tallest and most restless volcano, towering over eastern Sicily
Mount Everest
Earth's highest mountain, the crown of the Himalaya on the Nepal-Tibet border
Mount Fuji
Japan's sacred symmetrical volcano
Mount Kenya
An eroded equatorial volcano, Africa's second-highest peak
Mount Kilimanjaro
Africa's highest peak, a snow-capped volcano on the equator
Mount Kosciuszko
Mainland Australia's highest summit in the Snowy Mountains
Mount Merapi
Indonesia's most persistently active volcano, looming over the city of Yogyakarta in central Java
Mount Olympus
Greece's highest peak, the mythic home of the gods
Mount Pinatubo
The Philippine volcano whose 1991 eruption cooled the entire planet
Mount St. Helens
The Cascade volcano whose 1980 blast tore off its own summit
Mount Tambora
The Indonesian volcano behind the 1816 Year Without a Summer
Mount Teide
Spain's highest peak, a volcanic giant rising from the Atlantic on Tenerife
Mount Vesuvius
The volcano that buried Pompeii, looming over the Bay of Naples
Namib Desert
The world's oldest desert, where towering dunes meet the Atlantic fog on Africa's coast
New Guinea
The world's second-largest island, a wall of rainforest and glaciated peaks
Nyiragongo
The Congolese volcano cradling one of the world's great lava lakes
Oymyakon
A Siberian village widely cited as the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth
Parícutin
The volcano that rose from a Mexican cornfield in 1943 and erupted for nine years
Patagonian Desert
Argentina's windswept cold-desert steppe at the southern tip of the Americas
Point Nemo
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility, the point in the sea farthest from any land
Popocatepetl
Mexico's smoking mountain, a restless giant beside Mexico City
Puncak Jaya
Oceania's highest summit, an equatorial glacier peak in New Guinea
Pyrenees
The natural border between France and Spain, with Andorra tucked in its heights
Rocky Mountains
North America's continental backbone, stretching nearly 4,800 km
Sahara
The world's largest hot desert, an ocean of sand and stone across North Africa
Scandinavian Mountains
The Scandes, the glaciated spine of the Scandinavian Peninsula
Sicily
The largest island in the Mediterranean, crossroads of civilisations
Sonoran Desert
The lush North American desert of the towering saguaro cactus
Stromboli
The Mediterranean's lighthouse, erupting almost without pause for millennia
Sumatra
A vast volcanic island anchoring western Indonesia
Table Mountain
The flat-topped sandstone landmark above Cape Town
Taklamakan Desert
A vast cold sand sea in western China, ringed by mountains and crossed by the Silk Road
Tasmania
Australia's wild island state, a refuge of ancient forests and rare creatures
Thar Desert
The Great Indian Desert, a densely peopled sand region straddling India and Pakistan
The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake
The All Saints' Day earthquake, tsunami and fire that destroyed Lisbon and helped found modern seismology
The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
The San Andreas rupture and three-day fire that destroyed most of San Francisco and gave science the elastic-rebound theory
The 1960 Valdivia Earthquake
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5 megathrust rupture in southern Chile with a Pacific-wide tsunami
The 1976 Tangshan Earthquake
The predawn earthquake that leveled an industrial city east of Beijing, with an official toll of 242,419 and far higher outside estimates
The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami
The magnitude 9.1 Sumatra–Andaman earthquake and the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, which killed about 228,000 people in 14 countries
The 2010 Haiti Earthquake
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, with one of the most disputed death tolls of any modern disaster
The 2011 Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami
Japan's strongest recorded earthquake, whose tsunami killed nearly 16,000 people and caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident
The 2023 Turkey–Syria Earthquakes
Twin magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 shocks on the East Anatolian Fault that killed nearly 60,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria
The 2026 Venezuela Earthquakes
Twin magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 shocks on June 24, 2026, that struck La Guaira and Caracas, the strongest in Venezuela since 1900
The Alpine Fault
The plate boundary that runs up New Zealand's South Island and lifts the Southern Alps
The Cascadia Subduction Zone
The quiet megathrust off the Pacific Northwest that last broke in a magnitude 9 earthquake in 1700
The Himalayan Collision Zone
Where India drives into Asia, raising the world's highest mountains and its deadliest continental quakes
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge
The 16,000-kilometer undersea mountain range where the Atlantic Ocean is still being born
The New Madrid Seismic Zone
The buried faults in the middle of North America that shook the Mississippi Valley in 1811 and 1812
The North Anatolian Fault
Turkey's 1,500-kilometer strike-slip fault, unzipping westward toward Istanbul
The North Pole
The northern end of Earth's axis, a point on drifting sea ice above a deep ocean
The San Andreas Fault
California's 1,200-kilometer seam between the Pacific and North American plates
The South Pole
The southern end of Earth's axis, high on the Antarctic ice sheet and home to a year-round research station
The Tectonic Plates
The seven great slabs and dozens of smaller ones that make up Earth's moving shell
The Yellowstone Caldera
The vast volcanic system beneath Yellowstone National Park, source of three of the largest eruptions known
Tian Shan
The Celestial Mountains of Central Asia, a 2,500-km system of glaciated ranges
Tibetan Plateau
The roof of the world, Earth's highest and largest plateau
Tristan da Cunha
The remotest inhabited archipelago on Earth, part of a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic
Ural Mountains
The worn 2,500-km range that divides Europe from Asia
Verdon Gorge
The turquoise canyon of Provence, the Grand Canyon of Europe
Vinson Massif
Antarctica's highest mountain, deep in the Ellsworth range
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon
The deepest canyon on Earth, where a Tibetan river knifes through the Himalaya
Zagros Mountains
Iran's great folded range, a 1,600-km wall above the Persian Gulf
Zanzibar
The spice island of the Swahili coast, off the shore of Tanzania