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voladores, juego de los ... Volta, Lake

voladores, juego de los: (Spanish: "game of the fliers"), ritual dance of Mexico, possibly originating among the pre-Columbian Totonac and Huastec Indians of the region now occupied by Veracruz and Puebla states, where it is still danced. Although the costumes and music show Spanish ...
volante: Spanish one- or two-passenger carriage, having two wheels and an open, hooded body. The body was set in front of the wheels and attached to the long shafts. The carriage was usually pulled by one horse, which was ridden by ...
Volapuk: artificial language constructed in 1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a German cleric, and intended for use as an international second language. Although its vocabulary is based on English and the Romance languages, the word roots in Volapuk have been modified ...
volcanic dome: any steep-sided mound that is formed when lava reaching the Earth's surface is so viscous that it cannot flow away readily and accumulates around the vent. Sometimes domes are produced by repeated outpourings of short flows from a summit vent, ...
volcanic glass: any glassy rock formed from lava or magma that has a chemical composition close to that of granite (quartz plus alkali feldspar). Such molten material may reach very low temperatures without crystallizing, but its viscosity may become very high. Because ...
volcanism: any of various processes and phenomena associated with the surficial discharge of molten rock, pyroclastic fragments, or hot water and steam, including volcanoes, geysers, and fumaroles. Although volcanism is best known on Earth, there is evidence that it has been ...
volcano: vent in the crust of the Earth or other planet or satellite, from which issue eruptions of molten rock, hot rock fragments, and hot gases. A volcanic eruption is an awesome display of the Earth's power. Yet while eruptions are ...
Volcano Islands: archipelago, Tokyo to (metropolis), Japan. The islands lie in the western Pacific between the Bonin Islands (north) and the Mariana Islands (south). The three small volcanic islands are, in north-south sequence, Kita-Io (San Alexander) Island, Io (Iwo Jima) Island, and ...
volcanology: discipline of the geologic sciences that is concerned with all aspects of volcanic phenomena.
Volcker, Paul: American economist and banker who, as chairman of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System (1979-87), played a key role in stabilizing the American economy during the 1980s.
vole: any of 124 species of small-bodied mouselike rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. Voles have a blunt rather than a tapered muzzle, a tail shorter than the body, and small eyes and ears. Voles live in a wide variety of habitats ...
Volendam: town, Edam-Volendam gemeente (commune), Noord-Holland provincie, northwestern Netherlands, on Lake IJssel. Its harbour was sealed off as part of an inland lake, preparatory to the drainage of Markerwaard Polder (see IJsselmeer Polders), and the town's once-flourishing fishing industry has subsequently ...
Volga River: river of Europe, the continent's longest, and the principal waterway of western Russia and the historic cradle of the Russian state. Its basin, sprawling across about two-fifths of the European part of Russia, contains almost half of the entire population ...
Volga-Baltic Waterway: system of rivers and a canal in western Russia linking the Volga River with the Baltic Sea. The system was completed in 1964, replacing the antiquated Mariinsk Canal system using the same route, which was constructed originally in the 18th ...
Volga-Don Ship Canal: canal linking the lower Volga River with the Don River at their closest point, in Volgograd oblast (province), southwestern Russia. Attempts to join the rivers date from 1697, when Peter I the Great made an abortive effort to build a ...
Volga-Ural Petroleum and Gas Province: principal petroleum-producing region of Russia. Situated in the southern part of European Russia, it stretches from the west flank of the Ural Mountains to west of the Volga River. The largest fields are in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan and near Samara ...
Volgian stage: major and uppermost division of Jurassic rocks (i.e., those formed from about 152 to 144 million years ago) in continental and Arctic regions of Russia. Elsewhere, the Purbeckian stage is generally recognized as the uppermost Jurassic stratigraphic unit. Two primary ...
Volgograd: oblast (province), southwestern Russia, lying athwart the lower Volga and Don rivers. The Volga is flanked on the west by the Volga Upland, which is continued south of Volgograd as the Yergeni Upland. West of the Khoper and Don are ...
Volgograd: city and administrative centre of Volgograd oblast (province), southwestern Russia, on the Volga River. It was founded as the fortress of Tsaritsyn in 1589 to protect newly acquired Russian territory along the Volga. During the Russian Civil War (1918-20), Joseph ...
Volhynia: area of northwestern Ukraine that was a principality (10th-14th century) and then an autonomous component of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was ruled largely by its own aristocracy (after the late 14th century). The region became prominent during the ...
Volkhov River: river, northwestern Russia. It is the major outlet for Lake Ilmen, whence it flows past Novgorod and directly north-northeast into Lake Ladoga across a level, swampy basin. The river is 139 miles (224 km) long and drains a basin of ...
Volkischer Beobachter: (German: "People's Observer"), daily newspaper published by the Nazi Party in Germany from the 1920s until the fall of the Third Reich in 1945. The paper was originally founded in 1887 as a four-page Munich weekly, the Munchner Beobachter. It ...
Volkmann's contracture: disorder of the wrist and hand in which the hand and fingers become fixed in a characteristic bent position. The disorder may be caused by the pressure of bandages, a tourniquet, or splints after a fracture; or by a severe ...
Volkov, Vladislav Nikolayevich: Soviet cosmonaut, participant in the Soyuz 7 and 11 missions of 1969 and 1971, the second of which resulted in the death of three cosmonauts.
Volkova, Vera: Soviet ballet teacher who greatly influenced Western dance training.
Volkovysk: city, Hrodno oblast (province), western Belarus. It dates from the 13th century as a fortified point on the frontier between the principality of Hrodno and the grand duchy of Lithuania, in which locale it suffered many reversals of fortune. By ...
Volksraad: advisory body created by the Dutch in the East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1917 and opened in May 1918. It served as a forum for the expression of grievances but lacked the power to pursue genuine reform.
Volkswagen AG: major German automobile manufacturer, founded by the German government in 1937 to mass-produce a low-priced "people's car." Headquarters are in Wolfsburg.
Vollard, Ambroise: French art dealer and publisher who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries championed the then avant-garde works of such artists as Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso.
volleyball: game played by two teams, usually of six players on a side, in which the players use their hands to bat a ball back and forth over a high net, trying to make the ball touch the court within the ...
Volney, Constantin-Francois de Chasseboeuf, Count de: historian and philosopher, whose work Les Ruines . . . epitomized the rationalist historical and political thought of the 18th century.
Volodymyr-Volynskyy: city, Volyn oblast (province), northwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the Bug River where it is crossed by the Kovel-Lviv railway. It was founded by Vladimir I, grand prince of Kiev, in the 10th century and became the capital ...
Vologda: city and administrative centre of Vologda oblast (province), northwestern Russia. The city lies along the Vologda River above its confluence with the Sukhona River and is situated about 250 miles (400 km) north-northeast of Moscow.
Vologda: oblast (province), northwestern Russia. The oblast consists of alternating broad river basins and morainic hills. The western third is drained by tributaries of the upper Volga River, while the eastern part belongs to the Northern Dvina River basin, draining into ...
Vologeses I: king of Parthia (reigned c. AD 51-80), the son of the previous king, Vonones II, by a Greek concubine.
Vologeses III: one of the rival claimants to the throne of the Parthian king Pacorus II.
Vologeses IV: king of Parthia (reigned 148-192).
Vologeses V: king of Parthia who reigned 191-208/209.
Vologeses VI: king of Parthia (reigned 209-c. 212).
Volos: port, the third largest of Greece (after Piraeus and Thessaloniki). It lies at the head of the Gulf of Pagasitikos (Volos) on the east coast of Thessaly. Volos is the capital of the nomos (department) of Magnisia and of the ...
Volsci: ancient Italic people prominent in the history of Roman expansion during the 5th century BC. They belonged to the Osco-Sabellian group of tribes and lived (c. 600 BC) in the valley of the upper Liris River. Later events, however, drove ...
Volscian language: an Italic language or dialect, closely related to Umbrian and Oscan and more distantly related to Latin and Faliscan. Spoken in central Italy by the Volsci people, neighbours of the Oscan-speaking Samnites, Volscian was replaced by Latin in the 3rd ...
Volsinii: ancient Etruscan town on the site of present-day Bolsena (Viterbo province, Italy). At an unidentified neighbouring site was a temple to Voltumna, which was the headquarters of the 12-city Etruscan League and the site of the annual assemblies of the ...
Volsk: city, Saratov oblast (province), western Russia. The city lies along the Volga River opposite its confluence with the Bolshoy (Great) Irgiz. Originating as the small settlement of Malykovka, it was made a town in 1780, first called Volgsk, later Volsk. ...
Volstead Act: (1919), U.S. law enacted to provide enforcement for the Eighteenth Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. See prohibition.
volt: unit of electrical potential, potential difference and electromotive force in the metre-kilogram-second system (SI); it is equal to the difference in potential between two points in a conductor carrying one ampere current when the power dissipated between the points is ...
Volta Redonda: city, western Rio de Janeiro estado ("state"), Brazil. It lies along the Paraiba do Sul River, at 1,500 feet (460 m) above sea level. The city is known for its steel manufacturing.
Volta River: chief river system of Ghana, formed from the confluence of the Black Volta and White Volta (qq.v.) headstreams. The Volta flows generally southward through Ghana, discharging into the Gulf of Guinea. Its major tributaries are the Afram and the Oti ...
Volta, Conte Alessandro: Italian physicist whose invention of the electric battery provided the first source of continuous current.
volta, la: 16th-century leaping and turning dance for couples, originating in Italy and popular at French and German court balls until about 1750. Performed with a notoriously intimate embrace, it became respectable, but never completely dignified, after Queen Elizabeth I of England ...
Volta, Lake: artificial lake in Ghana. The lake is formed by the Akosombo Dam (q.v.), which, begun in 1961 and completed in 1965, dammed the Volta River just south of Ajena and created a lake extending upstream from the Akosombo Dam to ...