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Physical Characteristics of the Land and Water Vocabulary Continent • Large landmass on the Earth Landform • The natural feature of a land surface Canyon • Deep and narrow valley with steep walls Desert • Land that receives very little rain Glacier • Mass ice formed from falling snow that collected over the years and is moving slowly Perito Moreno Glacier in western Patagonia, Argentina Black ice glacier near Aconcagua, Argentina Island • Landmass surrounded by water on all sides British Isles Isthmus • A narrow stretch of land connecting two larger land areas The Suez Canal goes across the western side of the Sinai Peninsula Mountain • A large landmass that stretches across the surface and is higher than its surroundings The Matterhorn, Swiss Alps Mountain Range • Series of connected mountains The Himalayas (Asia) Peninsula • A body of land jutting into water, surrounded by water on three sides Cape • A piece of land jutting into the sea or some large body of water Cape Plain • Area of low land usually covered with grass Plateau • An area of flat or rolling land that rises sharply above nearby land on at least one side. Island in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park (Utah) Valley • Low land between hills or mountains U-shaped valley in Glacier National Park, Montana The Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand, India Volcano • A vent in the earth’s crust through which lava and steam escape The Mt. Stromboli off the coast of Sicily Mount Rainier over Tacoma, Washington, USA Hill • High land with a round top and sloping sides Connors Hill, near Swifts Creek, Victoria (Australia) Body of Water • Any fresh or salt water formation The River Cam from the Green Dragon Bridge, Cambridge UK The Caspian Sea (Middle East) Strait • A narrow stretch of water joining two larger bodies of water Strait of Gibraltar Bering Strait Bay • An inlet of sea or other body of water partially surrounded by land, smaller than a gulf Bay of La Concha (San Sebastián, Spain) The Bay of Bengal in South Asia Gulf • Part of an ocean or sea that is enclosed by land, larger than a bay Gulf of Mexico Harbor • Part of a body of water along the shore deep enough to anchor a ship Lake • A body of fresh or salt water surrounded by land Sea • A large body of salt water completely or partly surrounded by land Dead Sea (land lock) Archipelago Sea River • A natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing into a channel or larger body of water Mouth of River • The opening of a river that flows out to the sea or ocean The mouth of the Sava and Danube rivers in Belgrade, Serbia Tributary • A stream that flows to a larger stream or other body of water River tributary In Norway, the river Glomma meets its main tributary Vorma Delta • The flat area at the mouth of some rivers where the river splits into many rivers The Ganges Delta in India and Bangladesh Delta River Channel • The deeper end of a river, strait or harbor or narrow sea between two close landmasses Vivari Channel in Albania links Lake Butrint with the Straits of Corfu. Wooden pilings mark the navigable channel for vessels entering Lake George from the St. Johns River in Florida