Littoral

THE WORD LITTORAL comes from the Latin root littus, or “seashore.” The littoral zone of a lake or ocean refers to the shallow waters closest to shore. In lakes, this is the zone dropping from the shoreline to roughly 10 ft (3 m) deep where there is enough sunlight for rooted plants to exist. Only in lakes with strong wave action will the littoral zone have algae instead of rooted plants.

Since the littoral zone is the interface between the lake and the surrounding watershed, it receives and accumulates sediment and nutrients that can support a wide variety of plants and animals. Plants include emergent wetland vegetation to submergent plants that may or may not reach the lake surface. This vegetation provides nutrients and habitat for fishes, birds, amphibians, invertebrates, and zooplankton.

Because of tides and wave action, the littoral zone of an ocean is subdivided into many parts. The supralittoral zone (spray zone) is found above the high tide mark up to the point that ocean spray cannot reach. This area usually receives only ocean spray, except for very high tides or storm surges that can inundate it. The intertidal littoral zone is bordered by the high and low tide marks. The sublittoral zone starts at the low tide mark and goes out to roughly 650 ft (200 m) deep, which is the average depth of the edge of the continental shelf. Numerous species live in these zones, each adapted to the abundance and presence of water they receive each day.

Littoral zones are the interface between land and water, and so they are very productive, meaning they support many plants and animals. However, these same areas are also easily altered by human development or pollution. For example, more people in the UNITED STATES are building homes on the remaining edges of lakes and rivers. Disturbing the soil to grade the lot and build the house causes erosion, which moves sediment into the water. Often, people will dump a load of sand on the littoral zone so that they don’t have to walk through plants to go swimming and so it will look neater. Piers built off of these lots can also damage the plants in the littoral zone. As houses age, septic systems start to fail and this nutrient-rich pollution moves laterally into the water, promoting eutrophication. Polluted runoff from driveways and lawns can also impair the waterways.

Coastlines in every country have been feeling additional pressures from growing cities. The more human activity near a coastline results in more damage to the littoral zone. In wealthier areas, beach replenishment (dumping new sand on the beach) buries the current plants and animals, and the building of seawalls and groins to protect one beach will disturb currents to more seriously erode the next unprotected beach downcurrent. The major problem, however, is pollution. Sewer pipes and polluted rivers both dump myriad pollutants into the littoral and sublittoral zones, damaging the life forms there.

Sometimes people hear about this type of pollution when local health departments close down shellfish beds after sewage pollution has been high (because of storm sewer overflows or treatment plant malfunctions). Similarly, each year more beachgoers arrive to find beaches closed where water quality monitoring has detected pathogens, particularly after rain events. Surfers on the west coast of the UNITED STATES have long complained of intestinal sickness and skin sores after spending time in the water near sewage and creek outfalls. There is increasing pressure on coastal cities to repair and upgrade their aging treatment facilities to solve this problem.

Other laws now prevent ocean liners from dumping their sewage (treated or not) near shore, and only to dump treated sewage many miles out to sea. In some countries, laws require that ships not dump their waste oil or oily bilgewater close to shore or that only double-hulled oil tankers may enter port. Degrading littoral zones, particularly along oceans, damages habitat that marine and shorebird animals need, thus reducing this common resource both regionally and globally. The LAW OF THE SEA expects that signatories respect and protect these areas, but oftentimes little or no protection exists.

Lithuania

THE REPUBLIC OF Lithuania in northern Europe is a lowland country that borders LATVIA to the north, BELARUS to the east and southeast, POLAND and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to the southwest, and the Baltic Sea to the west. Lithuania is a parliamentary democracy with the supreme council or Seimas serving as the legislature and the president serving as head of state. Its major cities are Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipedia. The Lithuanian countryside consists of lowlands and small hills and is dotted by 3,000 lakes. The climate is generally humid, with peak rainfall in August. Temperatures range from 23 degrees F (-5 degrees C) in January to 63 degrees F (17 degrees C) in June. The chief river is the Nemunas, which flows to the Baltic Sea.

Permanent human settlements in what is now Lithuania date to about 8000 B.C.E. In the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights were sent to Lithuania to convert the pagan population to Christianity. In 1385, Grand Duke Jogaila married Queen Jadwiga of POLAND, which began the Christianization of Lithuania and its special relationship with Poland. In 1569, the Treaty of Lublin joined the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland into a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to balance the growing power of Moscow. Thereafter, Lithuania joined Poland’s decline, ultimately culminating in the partitions by AUSTRIA, Prussia, and RUSSIA between 1772 and 1795.

Lithuania was incorporated into the Russian Empire after the final Polish partition in 1795. The population was subjected to harsh policies forbidding use of the Lithuanian language, resulting in revolts in 1830 and 1863. In 1918, Lithuania declared its independence amid the destruction and chaos of World War I and the Russian Revolution. In August 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact split Poland and the Baltic States between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. In 1941, the Nazis invaded Lithuania, only to be reoccupied by the Soviet Union. After World War II, Lithuania was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

In 1991, Lithuania regained its independence with the other Baltic States. The last Soviet troops withdrew from Lithuanian soil in 1993. Like its Baltic neighbors, Lithuania has taken steps to integrate into Europe by joining the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO) in 2003 and the EUROPEAN UNION in 2004. 

Lithuanians make up 80 percent of the population, with the remainder consisting of Russians, Poles, and Belarussians. Roman Catholicism is the religion practiced by the majority of Lithuanians. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the state of Russians residing since the Soviet era poses a challenge for Lithuania. The Lithuanian economy has had to transform from a command economy under the control of Moscow to a free market economy. This process has been successful in bringing prosperity but has also created inequities in the standard of living. Lithuania’s chief exports are meat, milk, dairy products, and television parts, while remaining dependent on oil and natural gas from Russia.

Lisbon

WITH A metropolitan-area population of 2,682,687, Lisbon is the capital and largest city in PORTUGAL. It is located on the right bank of the Tagus River, where it forms a large estuary providing a natural safe harbor close to the ATLANTIC OCEAN. The city evolves over a series of hills and enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and warm dry summers.

Lisbon was the capital of a worldwide empire for more than 400 years and is the main political, economic, and cultural center of Portugal. The origin of the settlement is remote. Occupied by the Romans in 205 b.c.e., the town was confined to old Castle Hill and the slope leading to the river. It was conquered by the Moors in 714 and recovered by the Crusades and the king of Portugal in 1147. Lisbon was promoted to capital of the kingdom in 1255, and thanks to commerce between the Mediterranean and northern Europe, it became a primary urban center during the 13th and 14th centuries.

Serving as base for the Portuguese expeditionary navies in the age of discoveries, the city benefited the most from this period and became a significant cultural and economic center: infrastructures and especially monuments were built, and the city expanded to the west. In 1527, Lisbon already stood out among Portuguese cities and gained importance at a European level. An earthquake in 1755 destroyed most of the city. The downtown area (Baixa) was rebuilt as a regular grid aligned with the river, replacing tortuous medieval streets and turning it into a hallmark of Lisbon for its unity and architectural value.

Until the development of railroad transportation, the river was the main thoroughfare for the transport of people and goods between the city and more interior areas of the country. During the 19th century industrialization, mass transit was introduced and larger factories were installed along the river, attracting peasants from the countryside and originating typical worker neighborhoods. At the end of that century, the opening of Avenida da Liberdade, a wide boulevard, changed the form of the city by directing growth toward the north. However, by 1940 Lisbon was still concentrated and close to the river. On the hill to the west, the 2,540-acre (1,028-hectare) Monsanto forest park was created on still undeveloped land.

After World War II, a sharp increase in urbanization pushed growth beyond the limits of the municipality, and toward the west and north along main transportation routes (especially railroads). Population of the city stabilized in the 1950s, and by 2000 only 20 percent of the population of the metropolitan area lived within city limits. In the 1950s and 1960s, new industrial areas were located in Cabo Ruivo and on the south bank, connected by a bridge in 1966. More recent transformations include the expanding network of expressways and construction of large peripheral shopping centers, underlining the ongoing strong suburbanization. Part of the east riverfront was rebuilt to replace heavy industry with an area of residential use.

Liechtenstein

ONE OF WESTERN Europe’s five microstates, the story-book principality of Liechtenstein is in reality one of the few “absolutist” states in the world, thanks to a favorable referendum voting extensive powers to the ruling sovereign in March 2003. His Serene Highness, Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein now has more political prerogatives than any other monarch in Europe.

Sandwiched between the Swiss cantons of St.Gallen to the west and Graubünden to the south and the Austrian province of Vorarlberg to the east, Liechtenstein’s history has naturally been closely linked to its larger neighbors. The family had served the Habsburgs in AUSTRIA for centuries, and in fact the family derives its name from its main castle just south of Vienna. Prince Johann Adam bought the county of Vaduz and the adjacent lordship of Schellenberg in 1699 and 1712, and the two territories were united as a fully independent member of the Holy Roman Empire in 1719. But the land itself was of secondary importance to the family: no sovereign prince of Liechtenstein even visited until the middle of the 19th century.

When the Holy Roman Empire fell apart thanks to Napoleon in 1806, Liechtenstein fell between the cracks and was not consolidated into one of the larger German states. Successive princes maintained their independence and forged a beneficial customs union with Austria in 1852. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, the princes turned west and formed a similar customs and monetary union with SWITZERLAND in 1923, which is still in effect today. The princely family still owns large estates in Austria and lays claim to numerous others in the CZECH REPUBLIC that were confiscated by the communists (equal to ten times the size of the principality itself). Still, the prince’s wealth is estimated at more than $2 billion.

The principality—15 mi (26 km) long, and an average of 4 mi (6 km) wide—lies on the eastern bank of the RHINE RIVER, between its emergence from the high Alpine valleys of Switzerland and Lake Constance to the north. Two canals running on either side of the river through this valley maintain its water levels to reduce risk of spring floods. The eastern third of Liechtenstein is divided from the rest by a range of mountains, forming the upper Samintal, or valley of the Samina River, which runs northward into the Ill in Austria, which in turn joins the RHINE just a few kilometers north of Liechtenstein. To the east and south of this valley rise the much greater Alpine heights dividing the country from Austria, including a number of peaks above 8,250 feet (2,500 m).

The main town, Vaduz, has a population of about 5,000. High above the town, the prince’s castle, dating from the 14th century, boasts one of the largest private art collections in the world and is a major tourist attraction. Much of this art collection has recently been transferred to Vienna’s newest major art gallery, the restored Liechtenstein Palace, opened to the public in March 2004. Liechtenstein itself has been transformed since World War II from a sleepy agricultural community to a modern industrialized society with one of the world’s highest standards of living. Revenue is generated locally through skiing and the sale of rare stamps, but it is the income from numerous so-called post-office-box companies, attracted by low business taxes, that has boosted the national economy (providing as much as 30 percent of state revenues). Concerns over tax evasion schemes and money laundering, however, have recently caused increased pressure from the EUROPEAN UNION and the principality’s authorities.

Libya

A RELATIVELY LARGE country, similar in size to the state of ALASKA, Libya largely consists of broad rolling deserts, barren rock inselbergs and immense dune fields or ERGS. It is a landscape of sandstorms; hot dusty wind, or ghibli; an expanding desert; and scarce water. More than 90 percent of the country is considered arid or semiarid. It primary cities are all located on the MEDITERRANEAN SEA coastline, which has facilitated its links across North Africa to Europe and western Asia.

Generally speaking, the Saharan plateau covers most of Libya. The exceptions are in the northwest corner in a region known as Tripolitania and in the northeast in Cyrenaica, Libya’s largest region. The Tripolitania region, which runs north to south, is a string of carefully cultivated coastal oases in addition to the triangular Al-Jifarah plain, and the Nafusah Plateau, 200 mi (320 km) of limestone between 2,000 and 3,000 ft (600 to 915 m) in elevation.

Libya has no perennial rivers, but there are extensive underground aquifers that support artesian wells and springs. Libya’s arid desert climate is moderated along the coast by the Mediterranean Sea. Precipitation ranges from 16 to 20 in (40 to 50 cm) in the northern hills to less than 5 in (12 cm) throughout most of the south, and to 1 in (2.5 cm) in the Libyan Desert.

Droughts are common, meaning natural vegetation is minimal. Libya’s principal mineral resource is its reserves of petroleum, Africa’s largest and among the world's largest. Since it earliest days as a major Phoenician and Roman territory on the North African coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Libya has been raided and colonized by Vandals, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and Italians until its independence in 1951. Only a few years later, the country changed dramatically with the discovery of enormous oil reserves. In 1969, a 27-year-old Muammar Qaddafi led a successful coup to gain control of the nation. Qaddafi has been victorious in removing any imprints of previous cultures to create a landscape from his own vision. Based upon his Third International Theory, he created a political system combining Islam and socialism.

Using petroleum revenues in the 1970s and 1980s to promote political ideologies (including supporting terrorist activities) throughout the region, Libya prompted the United Nations (UN) to impose economic sanctions after the Lockerbie terrorist bombing was suspected to have had Libyan ties. The sanctions were then lifted in April 1999 when Qaddafi handed over Lockerbie bombing suspects.

Liberia

LIBERIA, “LAND OF THE FREE,” in western Africa, borders the north ATLANTIC OCEAN, between CÔTE D’IVOIRE and SIERRA LEONE. It has 10 to 50 mi (16 to 80 km) of flat coastal plain that contains creeks, mangrove swamps, and lagoons. Beyond that, forested hills, from 600 to 1,200 ft (180 to 370 m) high cover the rest of the country, excluding the mountains in the northern highlands. The maximum peak in the Nimba Mountains is 4,540 ft (1,383 m). Six principal rivers flow to the ATLANTIC OCEAN.

Vegetation is predominantly forest, and the tropical, humid climate sees rainfall averages of 183 in (465 cm) on the coast and 88 in (224 cm) in the southeast. The dry season (harmattan, December and January) splits two rainy seasons. Cities other than Monrovia are the ports of Harper and Buchanan. POPULATION GROUPS

There are 16 ethnicities in Liberia, including the Kpelle, Mano, Baso, Grebo, Kru, and Vaj. Seventy percent are native, traditional religion practitioners, while 20 percent are Muslim and 10 percent Christian. Although English is the official language, the native languages are used commonly. The Americo-Liberians, a minority residing in the cities, tend to be Protestants.

Other population groups include Lebanese merchants and European and American technicians. Liberia was founded in 1820 on the Grain Coast; it was the gift of the American Colonization Society, which received it from the Cape Mesurado chiefs. The founders fought bloody battles with the indigenous peoples. Eighty-six freed slaves from the United States established Christopolis, later Monrovia, in February 1820. Approximately 15,000 freed slaves emigrated from the United States until the American Civil War. In 1847, Liberia declared itself an independent republic.

Until 1980, the Americo-Liberian or True Whig Party (TWP) ruled Liberia. The first president was Joseph Jenkins Roberts, American-born. The government and constitution were modeled on that of the UNITED STATES. The republic traded with other parts of West Africa, but it modeled its style of living on those of the United States.

Modernization efforts led to a crisis of foreign debt in 1871. Conflicts with FRANCE and Britain led to losses of territory in 1885, 1892, and 1919. Liberia used the European rivalries and the support of the United States to remain independent. Still its exports declined and its debts rose, leading to foreign interference. Bankruptcy came in 1909. International loans saved Liberia. In 1926, Firestone, the American tire company, leased large rubber plantations. In 1930, the League of Nations investigated charges that Liberia was exporting labor, that is, engaging in the slave trade. The president resigned.

The new president, William Tubman, opened the country to international investment, allowed indigenes greater participation, and allowed the exploitation of iron and other minerals. Education, roads, infrastructures, and healthcare were improved. Tubman died in 1971. His vice president, W.R. Tolbert took over. A proposed increase in the price of rice in 1979 set off rioting. The TWP’s rule ended on April 12, 1980, when Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, a native Krahn, pulled off a successful coup. Doe’s forces executed Tolbert and several other Americo-Liberians. Doe’s People’s Redemption Council promised a return to civilian rule, then began repressing the opposition and abusing human rights. Doe instituted constitutional changes, survived numerous coups, and saw flight of thousands of refugees to the Côte d’Ivoire. The refugees returned in 1989, led by Charles Taylor. The war waxed and waned until finally in 2003 the Taylor regime ended, and the country and government struggled to maintain the uneasy truce.

Lesotho

LESOTHO IS LOCATED literally within SOUTH AFRICA: This small southern African country is landlocked and surrounded on all sides by the Republic of South Africa. Lesotho covers an area slightly smaller than MARYLAND. It is the only country in the world that lies entirely above 3,280 ft (1,000 m) and more than 80 percent of Lesotho is 5,905 ft (1,800 m) above sea level. Lesotho is mainly mountains, hills, and highlands with plateaus. It has a very temperate climate, with cool to cold dry winters and hot, wet summers.

Lesotho has four major mountain ranges within its borders. The DRAKENSBURG MOUNTAIN range, the Central range, and the Thoba Rutsoa range are all in the central and eastern parts of Lesotho and the Maloti range is in the western region. Thabana-Ntlenyana is the highest peak in all of southern Africa. It is also called “The Kingdom in the Sky,” “The Roof of Africa,” and “The Switzerland of Africa.” Deep river valleys and canyons cut these mountains; the water that flows through these canyons is the major water supply for all of southern Africa. Many of the rivers on the southern part of the African continent start in these hills, including the Orange River and its many tributaries.

This water is Lesotho’s main natural resource. Lesotho is exploiting its water through the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This project is designed to capture, store, and transfer water from the Orange River system and send it to the Republic of South Africa. This project not only moves water but produces hydroelectricity as well. There are going to be approximately seven dams and two tunnels when the project is complete in 2020. With the first phase of the project already completed, Lesotho has become almost completely self-sufficient in the production of electricity. Already it has generated approximately $24 million annually through the sale of electricity and water to South Africa.

The kingdom of Lesotho is heavily populated especially in the western part of Lesotho where there is more arable land. There, the people raise crops of corn, sorghum, wheat, beans, peas, asparagus, tomatoes, and peaches. Most of the land is used for raising animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, pigs, chickens, and horses. These people, called the Basotho, are remnants of various ethnic groups made up mainly of various Bantu-speaking people and some of the original San or Bushmen who were Lesotho’s earliest inhabitants. The Basotho managed to fend off both the Zulus and the Boers in the 1800s.

On October 4, 1966, Lesotho gained independence. The Lesotho government is now a constitutional monarchy with a king as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government. Currently, the king serves primarily as a ceremonial figure with no executive power. However, all land in Lesotho is held by the king and is allocated to the Basotho people through local chiefs. Foreigners in Lesotho are strictly forbidden from owning land. Lesotho has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa; official languages are English and Sesotho, a Bantu language.

Lena River

THE LENA RIVER is one of Russia’s great northern rivers, draining an area of 899,641 square mi (2,306,772 square km) and encompassing a region rich in wildlife and natural resources, including one of the world’s largest deposits of gold. This is also one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet, with extremes of temperature and vast stretches of northern forests (84 percent). Few people live in the region and there is only one city in the entire Lena basin, Yakutsk, the administrative seat of the former Yakut Autonomous Socialist Republic and now the capital of a semiindependent Yakutia, renamed the Republic of Sakha in 1991.

The river, 2,850 mi (4,597 km) long, flows mostly through Sakha, but its origins are in the Irkutsk District, immediately west of Lake BAIKAL. Its tributaries have their headwaters in the autonomous republic of Buryatiya and the districts of Chita, Amur, and Khabarovsk. The river starts in the Baikal range, only a short distance from the lake itself, though the lake’s waters flow into the Angara River and into the Yenisey, thousands of kilometers from the Lena. It then flows north and east to be joined by its first major tributaries, the Vitim and Olekma, whose headwaters originate in the Yablonov and other parallel mountain ranges east of Lake Baikal (which are also the source of the headwaters of the AMUR RIVER).

The river then turns again north in a large arc, following the contours of the Aldan Plateau to the south, from which emerges the Lena’s largest tributary, the Aldan, and the Verkhoyansk Range to the east. This range of mountains forms a steep escarpment for over 600 mi (1,000 km), stretching all the way to the Lena’s delta on the Laptev Sea, an arm of the ARCTIC OCEAN.

This semicircular area bounded by the Aldan and Verkhoyansk highlands forms a sort of climatic vortex, producing some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet: -88.9 F (-67 degrees C). To the west the terrain is much flatter, with larger tributary rivers, notably the Vilyui, which extends far into the Siberian Plateau. From the confluence of the Lena with the Aldan, 800 mi (1,300 km) from the sea, the river becomes very broad, sometimes reaching 5 mi (8 km) across. The delta, covering 12,352 square mi (31,672 square km), is the largest in RUSSIA and third largest in the world. It is formed of numerous islets, marshes and sandbars. The largest islands (hundreds of square kilometers) are covered with damp, mossy tundra and frozen lakes that do not permit the construction of roads, so travel between the eight permanent settlements continues mainly by dogsled.

The river is almost entirely navigable, with an abundance of fish, but is frozen eight months of the year. Ice has been measured at 53 in (136 cm) in the south, and up to 90 in (231 cm) at the delta. Because the Lena is almost entirely fed by mountain snows, spring thaws can bring disastrous floods, followed by equally breakups of river ice, sizable chunks of which can destroy entire sections of the riverbank and any settlements alongside it. The annual flow of the river is very irregular, with 90 to 95 percent of all of its discharge in spring and summer, when its volume increases by as much as 10 times that of the winter months. This irregular flow has limited the development of hydroelectric projects in the Lena basin, though there are two large dam-reservoir complexes on the Vilyuy. The Lena was used as a highway for trappers and traders in Russia’s expansion to the Pacific coast, with its main town of Yakutsk founded in 1632.

Russia’s relations with the indigenous Yakut and Evenki peoples were not always harmonious, and the region saw a good deal of oppression, lawlessness, and unbridled greed in the race for lucrative furs. Another boom period followed in the 19th century, with the discovery of gold in the Lena valley near the confluence with the Vitim River. Privatization since the 1990s has returned the region to its “Wild West” frontier days, ruled by hustlers, speculators and black marketers. The 1 million inhabitants who live in the Lena basin are looking to their mineral wealth, still undeveloped because of great distances, difficulties building roads and buildings on permafrost, and difficulty getting water half the year.

Leeward and Windward

THE TERMS leeward and windward are used in a number of ways to describe specific places, physical features, and climatic processes. In one sense, windward and leeward generally refer to the location of a place relative to the prevailing wind direction. A windward location is one that is exposed to the prevailing winds. Conversely, a leeward location is protected from the prevailing wind.

For example, Concepcion, CHILE, on the west side of the ANDES would be in a windward location relative to westerlies moving inland from the PACIFIC OCEAN simply because it is exposed to the approaching wind. However, the east side of the Andes would be a leeward location because of the protection afforded by the intervening mountains. The windward and leeward designations illustrated here are equally applicable to orographic lifting, the process involved when winds strike the front face of a mountain, are forced up the windward face of the mountain and then descend on the leeward side. If the winds are laden with moisture and the mountain is high enough, the moisture carried by the wind may condense and produce precipitation.

The resulting precipitation will in the highest volumes on the windward side of the mountain and the leeward side will invariably receive a lesser amount. There are a number of places in the world where this process is clearly evidenced. Among them are the moisture-laden westerlies reaching the Pacific coast of WASHINGTON, which are forced aloft by the Coastal Ranges. The windward side of this region receives an abundance of rainfall while the leeward side on the eastern slopes receives little or no rainfall. A classic example of orographic lifting is found in the HIMALAYAS when the summer monsoons bring warm, moist winds across the Indian subcontinent and are then forced aloft by the imposing Himalayan barrier. Areas on the windward side on the mountains may receive as much as 100 in (254 cm) of rainfall. However, because of the great heights of the Himalayas, little or no moisture reaches the leeward side. So within a relatively short distance the climatic results vary from near tropical conditions to the true deserts of Central Asia.

The terms are used in a more formal manner to name particular groups of islands. For example, the islands in the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies all lie in the pathway of the northeast trade winds. This wind belt moves from approximately 30 degrees north latitude toward the equator where it meets its counterpart from the Southern Hemisphere, the southeast trade winds. Historically, British sailing ships entered the region with the northeast trade winds at their backs. The first island encountered on these voyages was usually BARBADOS, the island farthest east and most to windward.

The Windward Islands, as they came to be called, include Barbados, the Caribees (a cluster of small islands), DOMINICA, MARTINIQUE, GRENADA, SAINT LUCIA, and SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES. The Windward Islands, a former British colony, are the southernmost islands in the Lesser Antilles and were once collectively named the Federal Colony of the Windward Islands and later the Territory of the Windward Islands. The northern continuation of the Lesser Antilles includes islands that are farther downwind from the Windward Islands. First discovered by Columbus in 1493, these are the Leeward Islands, which includes ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, the British Virgin Islands, MONTSERRAT, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS, and ANGUILLA. A string of leeward islands is also found northwest of the Hawaiian Islands, and this group has become a national bird sanctuary.

In addition, the Society Islands in French Polynesia, a region east of the COOK ISLANDS in the South Pacific, are identified as leeward islands. Reference may be made as well to another use of the word windward. The narrow sea-lane separating eastern CUBA and HAITI lies in the path of the northeast trade winds. As such, vessels traveling between the ATLANTIC OCEAN and the CARIBBEAN SEA are using the aptly named Windward Passage. Those traveling through the pass from northeast to southwest have the advantage of the northeast trade winds pushing them along.

Lebanon

LEBANON, ONE OF the world’s smallest countries, is on the eastern shore of the MEDITERRANEAN SEA. SYRIA is its neighbor to the north and east, and ISRAEL is located to the south. Although a small country, Lebanon has a wide range of geographical regions. All of the major cities are located on the coastal strip. The Mount Lebanon Range located inland, provides majestic peaks and ridges. The Bekaa Valley, located parallel to the coast, is home to a multitude of wine vineyards.

Thousands of years ago, the mountains of Lebanon were covered with great cedar forests. Only a few cedar forests remain, but Lebanon is still recognized as the most densely wooded country in the Middle East. Many pine trees cover the mountain land, and fruit trees are present all across the coastal plain. The mountains are home to many different birds, including eagles, red kites, Sardinian warblers, and Scop’s owls.

The climate in Lebanon is as diverse as the topography. Along the coast, hot conditions are prevalent during the summer, and cool, moist weather during the winter months. Snow and wind are common in the Bekaa Valley during the winter, and the mountains provide a typical alpine climate year-round.

The French created Lebanon in 1920. Originally, the Maronites, the largest religious community in the country, were placed in control of the government. However, to ensure the Maronites would remain loyal to the French, the French enlarged Lebanon to include mainly Muslim areas in the state. After this inclusion, only 30 percent of the population was Maronite. The tight grip of the French would last for decades, and the religious differences would last for the rest of the century.

In 1926, the constitution was passed; a single chamber of deputies was created that could elect a president. The president had limited authority to choose a prime minister and the cabinet. However, the French rule continued to control Lebanese foreign relations and the military. By 1936, French and Lebanese government officials signed a treaty that included a guarantee of fairness to all religious sects in the country. The Maronite Christian Emile Eddé was elected president and he chose a Muslim, Khayr al-Din al-Ahdab as the prime minister. This power sharing formula continued until the late 1980s.

The French left Lebanon after World War II, and for the next two decades, the Lebanese people tried to create a separate identity. In the early 1970s, many Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters infiltrated the country. They conducted raids against the Israelis from southern Lebanon and urged many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to fight for their cause. By April 1975, tensions reached new levels as civil war broke out in Lebanon. The conflict sided the Christian Maronites against the Muslim Lebanese National Movement (LNM). The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) soon joined the Muslim forces. One year later, the Syrian army intervened and, with Arab League support, worked out a cease-fire. By October 1976, an Arab Deterrent Force, mainly of 40,000 Syrian soldiers, occupied Lebanon. However, tensions were still high.

On June 6, 1982, after years of PLO attacks, Israel invaded Lebanon with the goal of eliminating the PLO and creating a 25-mile security zone in southern Lebanon. The Israelis bombarded Beirut, hoping the Christian militias would seize control of the government. By August 1982, the PLO evacuated Beirut and took refuge in eight different countries. The Christian Bashir Gemayel was elected Lebanese president but was assassinated a few weeks later. The Israelis immediately returned to Beirut. A multinational peace force returned to the country and Amin Gemayel became president. In June 1985, Israeli forces withdrew from Lebanon, but maintained a presence in the southern Lebanon security zone. The country remained divided for the next six years. On May 22, 1991, the Lebanese government signed a Treaty of Cooperation and Brotherhood. Syria was given control over Lebanon’s internal affairs and had around 16,000 troops stationed in the country. In 2005, under international pressure, Syria began to withdraw those troops.

Lebanon has attempted to pick up the pieces from the years of war. Muslims have been given a greater role in the government. Although the militant group, Hezballah still retains its weapons, most of the militias have been weakened or eliminated. The Lebanese armed forces have central government control over the majority of the country and Israel had withdrawn its forces from the southern security zone.

Law of the Sea

THE LAW OF THE SEA is a compilation of international and national laws regulating the demarcation of areas of maritime jurisdiction appertaining to maritime states. While its origins were military and defensive today it focuses on respective rights of resource exploitation—oil and minerals as well as fisheries. The importance of international innocent passage via geopolitical choke points and along multinational rivers also is relevant.

The oceans had long been subject to the freedom of the seas and innocent passage doctrine, a principle put forth in the 17th century designed essentially to limit national rights and jurisdiction over the oceans to a narrow belt of sea surrounding a nation’s coastline. The remainder of the seas was proclaimed to be free to all and belonging to none. While this situation prevailed into the 20th century, by mid-century there was an impetus to extend national claims over offshore resources.

There was growing concern over the toll taken on coastal fish stocks by long-distance fishing fleets and over the threat of pollution and wastes from transport ships and oil tankers carrying noxious cargoes that plied sea routes across the globe. The hazard of pollution was ever present, threatening coastal resorts and all forms of ocean life. The navies of the maritime powers were competing to maintain a presence across the globe on the surface waters and even under the sea.

All maritime countries have claimed some part of the seas beyond their shores as part of their sovereign territory, a zone of protection to be patrolled against smugglers, warships, and other intruders. At its origin, the basis of the claim of coastal states to a belt of the sea was the principle of protection; during the 17th and 18th centuries, another principle gradually evolved: that the extent of this belt should be measured by the power of the littoral sovereign to control the area.

In the 18th century, the so-called cannon-shot rule gained wide acceptance in Europe. Coastal states were to exercise dominion over their territorial seas as far as projectiles could be fired from cannon based on the shore. According to some scholars, in the 18th century the range of land-based cannons was approximately one marine league, or three nautical miles. It is believed that on the basis of this formula developed the traditional 3-mi (4.8-km) territorial sea limit.

By the late 1960s, a trend to a 12-mi (19.3-km) territorial sea had gradually emerged throughout the world, with a great majority of nations claiming sovereignty out to that seaward limit. However, the major maritime and naval powers clung to a 3-mi limit on territorial seas, primarily because a 12-mi limit would effectively close off and place under national sovereignty more than 100 straits used for international navigation. 

In 1973, an international conference aimed at reaching an agreement was convened in New York. Nine years later in 1982, it adopted a constitution for the seas: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. During those nine years, representatives of more than 160 states sat down and discussed the issues and bargained and traded national rights and obligations in the course of the marathon negotiations that produced the convention.

Among the more important aspects of the convention are navigational rights, territorial sea limits, economic jurisdiction, legal status of resources on the seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction, passage of ships through narrow straits, conservation and management of living marine resources, protection of the marine environment, a marine research regime, and, a more unique feature, a binding procedure for settlement of disputes between states. In short, the convention is an unprecedented attempt by the international community to regulate all aspects of the resources of the sea and uses of the ocean and thus bring order to one of mankind’s very source of life.

Latvia

ON THE EASTERN shore of the Baltic Sea in northern Europe, the Republic of Latvia is a flat country that borders ESTONIA to the north, LITHUANIA to the south, BELARUS to the southeast, and RUSSIA to the east. Latvia is a parliamentary democracy with the supreme council, or Saeima, serving as the legislature and a president as head of state.

Most of Latvian topography is a flatland consisting fields, forest, lakes, marshes, and navigable rivers, with the exception of small hills east of Riga and to the southeast. Its chief rivers are the Daugava, Guja, Venta, and Lielupe. The major cities in Latvia are Riga, Daugavpils, Liepaja, and Jurmala. The country is marked by a long coastline indented by the Gulf of Riga to the northwest and some natural harbors. The climate is humid with only 30 to 40 days of sunshine per year. Temperatures range from 28 degrees F (-2 degrees C) in January to 63 degrees F (17 degrees C) in June.

The first permanent human settlements in what is know Latvia date at least to 9000 B.C.E. by migrations from the south and the southwest. From the 12th century onward, Latvia transferred from the rule of the Teutonic Knights, to the Poles, to the Swedes, and to the Russians. A Latvian national consciousness was formed by the early 19th century by its intellectuals, later to be transformed into an independence movement. Russian military weakness in World War I provided the opportunity for Latvia to gain independence in 1920.

The fledgling republic was beset by conflicts between fascists on the right and communists to the left. In June 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union and later invaded by Nazi Germany. In 1944, Latvia was reoccupied by the Soviet Union and incorporated as a Soviet republic after World War II. In 1991, Latvia gained its independence from the Soviet Union and, with its neighbors Lithuania and Estonia, did not join the Commonwealth of Independent States, which arose from the demise of the Soviet Union. The last Soviet troops withdrew from Latvian soil in August 1994. Latvia became a member of the EUROPEAN UNION in May 2004.

Latvians or Letts make up 54 percent of the population. The next largest groups include Russians, Belarussians, Ukrainians, and Poles. Incorporating its Russian minority poses a challenge for the new Latvian society, still bitter over Soviet and earlier occupations. Latvia’s fastest-growing exports are in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and timber, the country remains heavily dependent on energy, particularly from Russia. Independence from the Soviet Union also meant the start of a free-market economy. Despite hardships caused by economic reform, Latvia has been generally successful in emerging as an independent state.

Latitude and Longitude

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE are points on lines that graph the Earth and allow cartographers and others, by assigning measurements to the lines, to fix the location of any place. Latitude lines run east and west and are also called parallels; longitude lines run north and south and are known as meridians. The measurements for both are given in degrees; more exact locations are expressed by increments of minutes and seconds.

Lines indicating latitude circle the globe in an eastwest direction, between the North and South Poles. Latitude lines parallel the equator, itself an imaginary line but one that can be determined with exactness. The equator lies midway between the North and South Poles and is assigned a latitude of 0 degrees. All other points are given in relation to their distance north or south of the equator. The highest latitude possible is 90 degrees, which is the latitude of the North and South Poles: 90 degrees N and 90 degrees S. Each degree of latitude extends 69 mi (111 km).

Ptolemy was the first to use latitude and longitude lines and measure them in degrees in his book, Geography, written around 150 B.C.E. Today, well-known lines of latitude enclose the ANTARCTIC and ARCTIC CIRCLEs at 66 degrees 33 minutes south or north, which defines the area that experiences at least one full day of darkness in winter. Other named latitude lines are the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, which are at 23 degrees 27 minutes south or north. The TROPIC OF CAPRICORN and the TROPIC OF CANCER mark the points furthest south and north, where the sun can be seen directly overhead at least one day during the year.

Longitude lines, which had been envisioned on maps from Ptolemy’s time, were far more difficult to fix with accuracy. While the north-south lines can be drawn anywhere on a globe, the questions of where to place 0 degrees and how to measure from it were not resolved until recently. Unlike latitudes, which parallel each other, longitudinal lines are further apart from each other at the equator, and converge at the poles. 

Since the measurement of any such line could follow the sun, going from east to west, it can be a measurement of time as well as distance. The Earth is 360 degrees, divisible by 24-hour periods; the Earth rotates 15 degrees each hour. For ships at sea, figuring longitude—and thus, their own location—meant knowing the exact time in their home port, as well as the exact time at sea, and measuring the difference. In 1714, the British Longitude Act offered a prize of 20,000 pounds to anyone who could track longitude with an accuracy of .5 degrees.

In the 1770s, the prize was won by a clockmaker named John Harrison, whose chronometers were proved accurate on voyages with Captain James Cook. In 1884, the British government declared that the meridian running through the Greenwich Observatory near LONDON, England, would be the prime meridian, with a measurement of 0 degrees. Previous to that, and previous to acceptance of that decree by other countries, other meridians had served as 0 degrees. Washington D.C. and PARIS, FRANCE, for example, measured longitude from their own Prime Meridians.

Traveling west from the Greenwich Observatory, any spot between 0 degrees and 180 degrees, is considered west longitude. The line at 180 degrees is exactly opposite the Prime Meridian on the other side of the Earth, and serves as the INTERNATIONAL DATE LINE. Going east, any location between 0 degrees and 180 degrees is designated east longitude. Fixing latitude and longitude in the 21st century relies more on satellite technology than chronometers.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) was developed and deployed by the U.S. Department of Defense to find coordinates on or above the Earth. Electronic receivers decode and triangulate the information from this system to give latitude, longitude, and elevation. GPS receivers have varied uses: scientists and engineers measure tectonic movement, industries track their vehicles, and ordinary consumers navigate while sailing or hiking. Civilian use is deliberately degraded and limited to 100 meters, while military use of Precision (P) code is accurate to 20 meters.

GPS is called NAVSTAR (an acronym for Navigation System with Timing and Ranging) by the U.S. military, and became fully operational in 1994. Between 1989 and 2004, 50 GPS satellites had been deployed. A minimum of 24 circle the globe on six orbital planes. Longitude and latitude coordinates may be collected by a GPS receiver and uploaded into a geographic information system (GIS). Data capture (the insertion of information into the system) requires identifying the objects on a map and noting their precise global positions and their spatial relationships. Information from satellite images or aerial photographs may also be extracted with computer software and placed into the database. Existing digital information that is not in map form can be converted by GIS into usable form.

Laos

LAOS, THE ONLY landlocked (without any ocean coastline) Southeast Asian country, is one of the poorest of the world, with 40 percent of its population living below the poverty line. Its six-century-old monarchy, which also included French occupation (1893–1953), had dual capitals in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. The monarchy ended in 1975, when the communist Pathet Lao rebel forces, backed by North Vietnam, took control of the government. Laos turned into a communist satellite of the Soviet Union and VIETNAM but maintained a more neutral position than Vietnam and CAMBODIA. After aid from the Soviet Union ceased in 1991, the UNITED STATES, JAPAN, and international agencies provided the aid, without which the country would have been in great difficulty. The post-1975 collectivization of farms and nationalization of a few industries were replaced by a return to market economy and liberal foreign investment laws. Laos remains a communist country.

Western and northern parts of Laos are mountainous; the former includes a part of the Annamite Cordillera, where there are areas that receive 80 to 120 in (203 to 305 cm) of rainfall. Vientiane, the capital receives 68 in (173 cm) annually. Being in a monsoon climatic regime, there is a great deal of uncertainty about rainfall. Only 3.47 percent of the land is arable though 80 percent of the labor force is engaged in agriculture. 

Rice dominates the food crops and accounts for about three-fourths of the total crops produced. Laos is self-sufficient in rice, but it needs money to run the government and other activities. Its primary production-related industries (tin, beef, pork, cigarettes, and wood) are in their primitive stages. Upper reaches of the MEKONG RIVER on the western part of the country collect most of the drainage from the rest of the country. The Mekong is suitable for navigation only in sections because of several rapids.

The population of Laos shows characteristics of a lessdeveloped country: more people in the lower age groups (42 percent are in the age group 1 to 14 years); high birth rates (37 births per 100 people); low life expectancy (54 years); high infant mortality rate (89 per 1,000 births); and a high fertility rate (4.94 children born per woman in reproductive age). Sixty percent of Laotians are Buddhist and the remaining 40 percent are animists and others.

There are three strata of people in Laos: 1) Austro-Asiatic group, consisting of 25 percent of the country’s population. They were the earliest settlers but were driven into the mountains above 3000 ft (914m) by the Tai and Lao; 2) Lao Loum, who originated from South China and live in the most productive lowland river valleys, growing glutinous rice, accounting for 68 percent of the country’s population. They are the most educated and are the major decision makers; 3) Lao Sung, consisting of 9 percent of the population, are the 19th-century migrants from South China, living in the northern highlands. There is an ongoing government policy of “Laoization,” in which efforts are made to acculturate the Lao Theung and Lao Sung minorities in Lao Loum cultural traits. The government encourages ethnic harmony.

Landlocked

APPROXIMATELY ONE-FIFTH of the world’s countries have no access to the oceans or ocean-connected seas, classifying them as landlocked. Today, there are 42 landlocked countries, including LIECHTENSTEIN and UZBEKISTAN, considered doubly landlocked because they have no access to the oceans and neither does any country that surrounds them. The main issues to consider with a landlocked country include the high transportation costs of trade, coordinating logistics and working trade relationships with neighboring countries, and in some cases, volatile climates.

Fifteen of Africa’s 47 continental countries, including BOTSWANA, BURKINA FASO, BURUNDI, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, CHAD, ETHIOPIA, LESOTHO, MALAWI, MALI, NIGER, RWANDA, SWAZILAND, UGANDA, ZAMBIA, and ZIMBABWE, have no access to the ocean. Most of these countries are among the poorest in the world, and only those rich in gem and mineral resources have escaped extreme poverty. Poor transportation routes have impeded trade and prevented advances in technology from being readily available to many of these countries, facilitating the spread of disease, including HIV/AIDS, in naturally isolated areas.

Improved education within the countries only empowers highly trained students to emigrate, and politically, domestic policies do little to combat the geographical barriers between landlocked and neighboring nations. When the Democratic Republic of the CONGO was created, the country negotiated for a thin strip of land on the north end of ANGOLA, providing the country with just 23 mi (37 km) of access to the ATLANTIC OCEAN—enough to cut transportation costs by half of what they would have been without the ocean access. Botswana, Lesotho, NAMIBIA, and Swaziland have formed a customs union, allowing them greater economic control with South Africa, their main trading partner.

KAZAKHSTAN is the largest landlocked country (1.03 million square mi or 2.67 million square km) and is bordered by CHINA, KYRGYZSTAN, RUSSIA, TURKMENISTAN, Uzbekistan, and the CASPIAN SEA, a landlocked body of water. Kazakhstan is rich in oil and natural gas resources and has become more integrated in the world economy and the development of trade resources among other landlocked countries. In 1994, Kazakhstan joined with the two adjoining landlocked countries—Uzbekistan, doubly landlocked, and the Kyrgyz Republic—to establish a “free-trade zone” among the countries, strengthening their economic standing in Asia. The borders between Kazakhstan and Russia, AZERBAIJAN (across from Kazakhstan on the Caspian Sea), turkmenistan, and the Caspian Sea are currently under negotiation.

Other landlocked countries include the Asian nations of AFGHANISTAN, BHUTAN, LAOS, MONGOLIA, NEPAL, and TAJIKISTAN. The European landlocked nations include ANDORRA, ARMENIA, AUSTRIA, BELARUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, HUNGARY, Liechtenstein, LUXEMBOURG, former Yugoslav republic of MACEDONIA, MOLDOVA, SAN MARINO, SLOVAKIA, SWITZERLAND, and VATICAN CITY, the world’s smallest country. BOLIVIA and PARAGUAY are the only landlocked countries on the American continents and are both located in South America, though Paraguay is able to access the ocean via a long series of river connections over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) long.

Historically, countries have made extreme efforts to avoid being landlocked. In the 16th century, RUSSIA was considered landlocked part of the year when the ARCTIC OCEAN froze the country’s only ports. A prime motivating factor in the country’s expansion was the economic necessity of warmer ports. Ocean access can be an important part of political negotiations because of the economic resources a country can access. Once a part of the Third Reich during World War II, Gdansk (Danzig) was decreed to POLAND in 1945 as part of the Potsdam Conference, providing the country with its only ocean access.

Several countries, including ERITREA, MONTENEGRO, and the Republic of BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA have negotiated independence with access to the ocean as a key element in defining borders. The 12 mi (20 km) of coastline along the ADRIATIC SEA that is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina actually splits the Croatian territories into two segments. But knowing the important economic impact a country’s ocean access plays, compromises to get even a small amount of ocean access was crucial to a successful bid for Croatia’s national independence.

Land Bridge

IN GEOMETRICAL TERMS, a square also qualifies as a rectangle—a four-sided plane figure with four right angles—but a rectangle does not always meet the criteria to be a square—a figure having four equal sides. Such is the case with land bridges and isthmuses. An isthmus qualifies as a land bridge—a strip of land linking two landmasses, allowing free migration in both directions—but a land bridge is not always an isthmus, which is a narrow land bridge; the Isthmus of Panama, measuring 30 mi (48 km) at its narrowest point, for example, is an isthmian land bridge, whereas the Bering land bridge is believed to have been approximately 1,000 mi (1,609 km) wide during the Pleistocene Ice Age and would not have been considered an isthmus.

Land bridges are temporary in nature, and can disappear and reappear when geologic changes occur to the land or when the sea levels rise and submerge them or lower to expose these bridges of land. In addition to the above-mentioned Bering land bridge between Siberian Asia and ALASKA, the SINAI PENINSULA (23,500 square mi or 61,000 square km) is a triangular land bridge, linking northeast Africa with southwest Asia, and is home to over 200,000 people (1986). The Torres Strait waters (90 mi or 145 km wide) between PAPUA NEW GUINEA and AUSTRALIA have contained various land bridges when the sea levels were lower, exposing the continental shelf.

The migration of people and species across land bridges during glacial periods is what interests many scientists. Numerous species of flora, fauna, and animals have extended their ranges to new lands because of the isthmuses and land bridges that have intermittently connected different lands. Today, it is believed that the first humans in North America entered by way of the Bering land bridge, also referred to as Beringia, and although many Native Americans dispute these claims based on spiritual beliefs, archaeologist finds in both SIBERIA and the Bering land bridge region indicate similar tools, dwellings, and practices distinct to the Siberian region, suggesting there was a human migration between the two regions. Beringia was wide grassland and it is highly likely that people made it a home—however brief because of the cold climate.

The population of the Sinai Peninsula is primarily along the coast, and the main industries include fishing, mining, and tourism. Harsh weather makes this land bridge a natural barrier between the competing interests in the surrounding countries. The ongoing disagreements have led to several conflicts, primarily over the Suez Canal along the western perimeter of the peninsula. Active land bridges serve as important trade routes, and the Sinai Peninsula controls much of the trade between Asia and Africa, illustrating the role past land bridges have played.

In the Torres Strait, several islands composed primarily of granite in the western waters are all that remains of the land bridge. These islands include Waiben, Badu, Kiriri, and Gebar, among others. It is possible to see Pleistocene volcanoes in the area, and approximately 17 islands in the Torres Strait are currently inhabited. The islands act almost like steppingstones between Australia and Papua New Guinea, with a “trail” of flora, fauna, people, and customs traceable from landmass to landmass.

Geological similarities between Africa, South

America, Australia, INDIA, and ANTARCTICA indicate that 150 to 300 million years ago, a supercontinent, referred to as Gondwana or Gondwanaland, made up of these countries could have existed. Recent studies suggest that land bridges might have connected the regions, rather than one large land mass, and new developments in the fields of geology and geography will likely help to answer these questions in the future.

Lacustrine Plain

ALSO CALLED A lake plain, a lacustrine plain is an area created out of deposition largely related to the past existence of lakes in the area, although in some cases, the original lakes still exist, having shrunk in size over time. Lacustrine refers to the condition of being affected by a lake or several lakes. Lacustrine plains are some of the flattest of all landform features and have few surface interruptions, although they may contain freshwater marshes, aquatic beds and lakeshore environments. 

Lacustrine plains are of varying origin, but most are underlain by fine, flat-bedded silt and clay deposited in lakes. The plains are typically related to the impoundment of water by one of the following processes: GLACIATION, differential uplift, and lake creation in now-arid inland basins.

Lacustrine plains that are glacial in origin are known as glaciolacustrine plains, and these are largely created from the trapping and ponding of water on the irregular land surface left by the former continental glaciers. In regions where there were thick masses of stagnating continental ice, steep-sided holes through the dead ice occasionally held lakes. Water was retained in these lakes by the ice walls. Fine-grained sediments (muds) accumulated on the lake bottoms. Once the ice walls melted away, however, the lakes drained, leaving the lake bottoms as plateau-like features underlain by fine-grained sediments. These lakes are largely ephemeral or temporal, eventually draining after the ice is gone. The present Great Lakes region in North America is bordered in many places by extensive lacustrine plains showing the former extent of the lakes. The Lake Agassiz plain is the biggest of these, reflecting the size of the former lake which was bigger than all the present Great Lakes put together.

The lack of topography of glaciolacustrine plains is due to the infilling of deep parts of the lake with clays and silt and wave erosion on the shallower parts of the lake. In North America and some other parts of the world, glaciolacustrine plains are of greatest interest because they often provide suitable land for intensive agriculture, and their flat topography permits mechanized farming. Lake ERIE and Saginaw Bay on Lake HURON were once much higher and extended inland, and the bottom of those bodies of water now makes up the lacustrine plains near Saginaw and Monroe. Large cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Toledo also originated on the flat plains, where the dry beach ridges of the former lake edges served as roads. The flat lacustrine plains continue to absorb the urban expansion of these cities today. One handicap is that such areas are also poorly drained. Chicago lies on a plain formed when Lake MICHIGAN stood higher, and the city is often beset by the flooding of sewers, basements, and underpasses.

Other lake plains not associated with glaciers include the Congo Lake Plain and the lake plain of south SUDAN in Africa. These broad, flat plains of fine sediment were formed originally as enormous, in-filled basins created through differential uplift during the middle and late Pleistocene. The lakes were drained when the NILE and CONGO rivers eventually eroded their valleys, exposing large expanses of the former lake floors.

Lacustrine plains are also found in inland sites of present arid areas. The lakes associated with these plains were formed in a time of increased rainfall and reduced evaporation. The Chad Basin Plain in Africa, the Lake Eyre Plain in central AUSTRALIA, the plains around the CASPIAN SEA and the plains formed by Lake Bonneville in western UTAH are notable examples. The size of lacustrine plains varies according to the size of the original lake. The Superior Lake Plain, covering parts of the U.S. states of MICHIGAN, MINNESOTA, and WISCONSIN, is roughly 1,910 square mi (4,950 square km) in size. The Chad Basin Plain extends to about 919,554 square mi (2,381,635 square km) in size and is shared by seven countries: NIGERIA, NIGER, ALGERIA, Sudan, CENTRAL AFRICA REPUBLIC, CHAD, and CAMEROON.

Kyushu Mountains

THE KYUSHU MOUNTAINS form the high, elevated central portion of the Japanese island of Kyushu, the southernmost of JAPAN’s four main islands. Running roughly diagonally across the island, northeast to southwest, they cut Kyushu into a northern and southern sector. These sectors differ markedly from each other in many ways, from geology to economics: the north is urban and industrial, while the south is agricultural and poorer. The central part of the range has peaks over 3,300 ft (1,000 m), with the highest elevations at the northern end, overlooking the Aso ash and lava plateau. Mount Aso is the world’s largest volcano and last erupted in January 2004, highlighting the range’s status as one of the most geologically active places on the planet, with numerous volcanoes and hot springs, such as the famous resort at Beppu.

The island of Kyushu lies at the intersection of three tectonic plates. The core of the island was formed where the Seinan mountain arc (coming south from the island of Honshu) intersects with the mostly submerged arc of the Ryukyu Islands, which penetrates Kyushu from the south. The topography is broken up into narrow valleys cutting through steep slopes. The Kuma River is the chief waterway and flows northward into a gorge famous among trekkers. Restricted lowland area means that there has been a high degree of terracing for rice cultivation, though the population in general is rather sparse compared to the rest of Japan.

Orange groves and forestry dominate the local economy, though there has been recent growth in mineral processing industries (gold, copper, petroleum) on the eastern coast, where the ruggedness of the coast—with mountains descending directly into the sea in places—has created small protected natural harbors with relatively deep waters. The Ono River provides the needed water for these factories, as well as hydroelectric power.

Kyrgyzstan

LANDLOCKED AND MOUNTAINOUS, the Kyrgyz Republic achieved its independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Kyrgyzstan features spectacular mountain vistas and incredible natural beauty reminiscent of SWITZERLAND. Despite its natural beauty and recent attempts to develop a thriving tourist industry, Kyrgyzstan remains mired in poverty. Additional challenges include implementing democracy, combating ethnic tensions, and thwarting terrorism. Central Asia’s second-smallest country in terms of area, Kyrgyzstan borders KAZAKHSTAN to the north, CHINA to the east, TAJIKISTAN to the south, and UZBEKISTAN to the west.

Kyrgyzstan is dominated by the TIAN SHAN (primarily) and Pamir (in the south) mountain ranges. The vast majority of the country (roughly 75 percent) is continuously covered by snow and glaciers. Traversing the Tian Shan remains relatively difficult, as a summer trip from the northern capital of Bishkek to the southern second-largest city of Osh (a distance of 186 mi or 300 km) takes more than 10 hours by automobile. 

Kyrgyzstan is also home to numerous alpine lakes, the largest and deepest of which is Lake Issyk-Kul, located near the Kazakh border in the north. The lake reaches a depth of 2,300 ft (700 m); its clear, sky-blue water and health resorts make the lake a popular tourist destination. For a country its size, Kyrgyzstan has surprising climatic variability, ranging from polar to dry continental through the mountains, to temperate northern foothills, to subtropical in the southwest. Kyrgyzstan’s most valuable natural resource may be its gold deposits. The Kyrgyz republic was home to the Soviet Union’s largest gold mine (Makmal), which continues to be one of the largest proven gold reserves in the world.

Kyrgyzstan’s population is ethnically diverse, including Kyrgyz (64.9 percent), Uzbek (13.8 percent), Russian (12.5 percent), Dungan (1.1 percent), Ukrainian (1 percent), and Uygyr (1 percent) peoples. Population distribution is concentrated in the Fergana, Talas, and Chu valleys and is centered in the cities of Bishkek (the capital, 2004 population 866,300) and Osh (2004 population 229,700). Most citizens are adherents to the religion of Islam (75 percent), although a sizable minority of Russian Orthodox (20 percent) exists. A secular state, Kyrgyzstan has two official languages, Kyrgyz and Russian.

Kyrgyzstan’s economy, like that of other poor countries, is dominated by the agricultural sector. A full 55 percent of the labor force is engaged in farming. Nomadic herders raise sheep (for both meat and wool), cattle, and yaks. Other agricultural products include cotton, tobacco, and a variety of vegetables. Industry, which accounts for just 15 percent of the labor force, is limited to gold, small machinery, textiles, and food processing. During its first decade of independence, Kyrgyzstan implemented more market-oriented economic reform but experienced slower economic growth than the other former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

Perhaps the most pressing geographical/political issue facing Kyrgyzstan is its complex western boundary with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Three large Tajik exclaves exist entirely within Kyrgyzstan’s borders, and a serious boundary dispute continues with Uzbekistan. Here, seemingly arbitrary boundaries fragment ethnic groups and unite dissimilar peoples. Kyrgyzstan’s relative location has also fostered a growing problem of illegal narcotics traffic. The country has become a corridor for the movement of opium and heroin produced in AFGHANISTAN and Tajikistan, bound for the European market. Combating terrorism represents an additional problem confronting Kyrgyzstan. Radical Islam has penetrated the country, and Osh is considered by many to be the Soviet Central Asian headquarters of Wahhabism.

Kyrghiz Steppes

THE KYRGHIZ STEPPES is a historic name for the region currently forming central and eastern KAZAKHSTAN. It is a broad plain with few to no trees and little moisture. It is a land of horses and cattle and wideopen plains. The name is confusing, and thus used less frequently today, since the actual Republic of KYRGYZSTAN contains no STEPPE at all, while the Republic of Kazakhstan is home to very few Kyrgyz people.

The confusion stems from the 18th- and 19th-century conquest of the region by imperial RUSSIA. Russian authorities were unclear about the differences between the Turkic peoples of the plains and those of the high mountain valleys to the south and east, and for a time, they were both known as Kyrghiz, or Kyrghiz-Kazakh and Kara- (or Black-) Kyrghiz, respectively. The languages of the two groups are nearly the same, and the Russians already used the term Kazakh, or Cossack, to refer to similar nomadic (though Slavic) people who lived in southern Russia. It was not until the 1920s, when the communists began to separate the peoples of Central Asia into ethnically defined autonomous republics, that the name Kazakh was used to distinguish the peoples of the steppes from those of the mountains.

Like the rest of the steppes that cross most of southern Russia, the steppes of northern Kazakhstan are broad flat plains that contain enough moisture to support grasses, but not enough to allow for denser vegetation and forests.

The Kyrghiz Steppes in particular forms the northern third of Kazakhstan and can be divided into two zones. The western zone is in the center of the country, known as the Turgai plateau, starting north and northeast of the ARAL SEA. This plateau is marked by a central depression, with a chain of lakes stretching up to the Russian border. This was once a strait connecting two inland seas, millions of years ago. The Turgai and Irgiz rivers flow into semisalty lakes, which sometimes disappear altogether in especially dry periods. 

The eastern region is known as the Kazakh folded steppe and is generally hillier, with scattered higher massifs, including the Ulu-Tau, Karkaral, and Chingiz-Tau mountains. Geologically, these folds are related to the folds in the Altai and TIAN SHAN ranges. Some of these areas are rich in mineral resources, and cities were developed during the Soviet era, such as Karaganda, the fourth-largest coal-producing city in the former Soviet Union. These cities always struggled to provide themselves with enough water, however, both for their growing populations and for industrial needs. Water resources from the Irtysh Valley in the northern edge of this steppe were used for these purposes, as were waters from the Ili River, which flows into Lake BALKHASH, and waters that were diverted from the Syr Darya far to the south, resulting in the serious shrinkage of the Aral Sea.

Other projects initiated during the Soviet era converted large percentages of the formerly open steppes into cultivated agricultural land, again with serious drain on local water resources and a change in the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the local population.